


Least Complicated

by edibleflowers



Series: A Year in the Life [1]
Category: Pop Music RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-20
Updated: 2012-09-20
Packaged: 2017-11-14 16:34:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 22,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/517347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edibleflowers/pseuds/edibleflowers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Spring Break trip leads to a trip down memory lane.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Least Complicated

**Author's Note:**

> This was the first 'N Sync fic I wrote back in 2000. While it's rooted in what I was reading at the time (terrible Mary Sue hetfics), it was an attempt to prove that I could do better with the genre. It also led to several sequels, and thus is being archived here for posterity.

Carolina Adams had been standing in line for approximately five minutes before getting bored. Sure, she was excited to be at DisneyWorld on her spring break, courtesy of an indulgent set of parents. Sure, her two best friends were right there with her to share in all the excitement. But standing in line, no matter whether you're at the supermarket or waiting to get into the It's a Small World ride, is never thrilling. So it was with some relief that Carrie perked up at the sound of a commotion nearby.

"I don't know," Lindsey Abrams, the tall, mellow blonde of the group, replied in answer to Carrie's question. She leaned over the railing, trying to get a better look at the crowd gathering a few hundred feet down the "street" from them. A lot of them seemed to be girls -- teenagers, no less -- but she couldn't make out a focus to the group.

"We could go check it out," suggested Carrie, tossing a glance at the final member of their trio, Karyn Leeson. Karyn, as diminutive as Lindsey was tall, had the classic red-head temper and fiery locks to match, even if the color did come out of a bottle. At the moment, though, Karyn seemed caught in an indecisive moment, glancing from the end of the line -- which still wasn't that far away from where the girls now stood -- to the ride's entrance, probably half an hour's worth of twisty railings away.

Karyn finally shrugged in an amiable way. "We can always get back in line," she said, and with that, the three hopped over the railing and trotted towards the commotion.

They could hear female voices shrieking things like "Oh my God, it's Chris!" and "I can't believe it!", in between random incoherent cries of what seemed to be joy, but not until they got a good deal closer did Karyn give a sudden shout of her own and grab onto Carrie's arm as if for dear life.

Carrie, the average-height, average-brunette, average-workout member of the trio, gasped in surprise at the strength of Karyn's grip. "What in the--?" she said, trying to peer over the mob of girls to the center. Three young men stood there, with two taller, thicker, sunglass-wearing men standing close behind them, rather like bodyguards. Something about the three looked terribly familiar, but Carrie couldn't quite place it at first. Besides, something about one of them, the blond one, was tugging at her memory--

"Carrie, it's freaking 'N Sync, oh my god!" Karyn finally managed to get out, her grip tightening on her friend's arm.

"I thought there were five of them," Lindsey put in, clearly amused by Karyn's hysterics.

"It's Chris and JC and Lance," the redhead replied, undaunted. "But what the hell... what are they doing here?"

"Taking a break?" Carrie suggested. "You're the fan, don't they live around here or something?"

All three of them seemed to be in good humor, signing autographs, joking with some of the girls, giving hugs and posing for pictures with others. The bodyguards' glower seemed to be enough to keep the more enthusiastic ones from jumping on their boys of choice; another older man, Carrie noticed belatedly, was herding the fans in some semblance of order to try and keep fuss to a minimum. Some of the girls could even be heard muttering disappointedly that their particular favorites, Justin and Joey, weren't there as well.

"I want a picture," Karyn demanded, grabbing the disposable camera from her purse and thrusting it into Carrie's hands. Helplessly, Carrie gave Lindsey a desperate glance before being dragged into the midst of the crowd. Lindsey stayed back, however, laughing at the two of them.

Thought at first Carrie had thought all of the girls to be pre- or mid-teens, she soon realized that there were not a few college-aged women, like herself, drawn to the crowd. One of them gave her a rude elbow in the side when she accidentally treaded on toes; she threw an apologetic exclamation back before falling into Karyn's wake again.

And then Karyn was babbling something cute and incoherent to JC Chasez, who smiled warmly and put his arms around her for the picture. Karyn held down the button for the flash, took the picture, and then paused, her e tracking over to the blond one again. Lance, Karyn had identified him. Lance... Bass? That name tickled in the back of her mind, stimulating memory.

Suddenly, it hit her. Before she knew quite what she was saying, she cried out, "Fishboy!"

It was loud enough for those closest to her to hear; even as Karyn turned puzzled eyes on her, and JC blinked, grinning with amusement, Lance turned from the autograph he was signing and looked up at her in some astonishment.

"Fishboy?" he repeated.

Carrie slapped a hand over her mouth, starting to giggle. "Oh, geez, I'm sorry! I just... I mean, I used to know this guy when I was little, and his name was Lance, and I used to call him Fishboy... I'm--" Realizing abruptly that she was babbling, she gulped hard, sure by now that she was bright red wi

She could feel Karyn's hand closing around her wrist, ready to yank her back, but Lance had turned fully toward her now, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "No, it's all right, I just... I remember having a friend who used to call me that. What's your name?"

"Carrie Adams," she said, ignoring Karyn's insistent tugs on her wrist. Around them, the commotion had returned to its prior state of high anxiety, but she barely noticed it. Lance was smiling now, and his smile wedged out an answering one of her own. She knew -- knew, now, beyond the shadow of a doubt -- that he looked familiar for a reason. There was no other explanation for it.

"You grew up in Clinton, Mississippi," he started.

"Until I was twelve, and then we moved to Indiana," she replied. "And there was this boy my age who lived down the street from me..."

"And you used to play together and ride bikes all the time, went to school together, defended each other from all the other kids..?"

To her vast surprise, Carrie felt her eyes misting up. The conjuration of memories, of dusty back roads and skinned knees and a friendship that had been promised to last forever... "And now you're a big old star, just like you always said you were going to be," she grinned.

"I can't believe it's you!" Lance's grin seemed to encompass his whole face, Carrie's whole world. Without warning, he swept her up in a hug, squeezing her so tight she thought her lungs might burst. She shrieked with laughter, choking back the unexpected tears of joy in a rush.

"You nut!"

"I didn't think I was ever going to see you again!"

Karyn was just staring at the two of them now, her jaw dropped wide in open astonishment. Finally she managed to blurt out, "You guys KNOW each other?!"

"What are you doing down here?" Lance asked, a split-second later.

Giggling in spite of herself, Carrie nodded quickly to Karyn, adding, "I'll explain later," before turning back to Lance. "I'm down here on spring break," she replied. "That's my friend Karyn, and Lindsey's over there somewhere. We're roommates at Indiana University."

"This is so cool," Karyn put in, her initial astonishment having quickly given way to her standard friendly spirit. "Carrie, you've got to tell me all about it."

"Yeah, man, how come you never told us you had such pretty friends?" put in a male voice. Lance glanced over at Chris Kirkpatrick, who had bounced into the conversation as eagerly as Karyn, and rolled his eyes before introducing Carrie and Karyn to his bandmate.

The turmoil around them had abated to some extent, as the majority of the fans had received their autographs, pictures, and/or hugs, and been kindly but sternly directed elsewhere by the man who seemed to be in charge. As the crowd dispersed, Lindsey ambled up to them, her hands stuck in her pockets and a smile wrapped across her face. "You guys through yet? I'm just dying to get on the It's a Small World ride, you know."

"We know," Carrie and Karyn chorused automatically; they'd heard the plaint from Lindsey so many times by now that their response jumped out without conscious thought.

Having dispatched the last of the fans, JC wandered up as well, draping an arm over each of his friends' shoulders. "Why don't we all hang out?" he suggested, smiling amiably at Karyn, who blushed as red as her hair in response. "It'll help us go incognito and give Carrie and Fishboy -- I mean Lance -- some time to get caught up."

Chris raised a hand as if about to make a comment to that, but Lance slapped him playfully upside the head before he could say anything. "What?" Chris asked, affecting injured innocence.

"What do you think?" Lance asked, glancing around at the three girls, his gaze resting last and longest on Carrie.

"Like we'd say no," Karyn said eagerly. "Come on, Linds! It'll be fun," she said imploringly to the blond girl, who was pulling a thoughtful face even as Chris and JC went back to arrange things with their manager and the bodyguards.

It was agreed that quickly, and as the group headed together back towards the line -- which, thankfully, hadn't grown too much in length since the girls had left it -- Carrie and Lance found themselves falling almost naturally to the rear of the group.

* * *

Carrie couldn't take her eyes off Lance -- the boy she'd had a crush on since she first knew what those mushy feelings in the pit of her stomach were (or probably about age seven, she thought). Though he'd donned a worn Magic cap that shaded his eyes, hid his scruffy hair, the elements of his face remained the same - if more mature than she remembered. _Then again, how much of the adult is in the child at twelve years?_ she thought idly.

Her hands twitched nervously, burying themselves in the pockets of her denim shorts, and she was suddenly, absurdly glad she'd dressed conservatively today in a plain white t-shirt, the shorts and sneakers. She couldn't help but feel self conscious around him.

"So, uh," he said softly as they got in line behind the others, who were talking amiably enough, Karyn a mile a minute and Lindsey laughing at just about everything the redhead said. "You grew up real pretty."

"Thanks." Carrie felt the blush rise to her cheeks again. "I'd say the same, but..."

"It's okay," he said graciously, and she giggled.

"I'm just so... still overwhelmed," she said. "I hardly know what to say."

"Tell me about what's been going on with you. I haven't gotten a letter from you in, like, years."

"Well, you never wrote back," Carrie said defensively, smiling. "I... kind of gave up, I guess."

It was Lance's turn to look bashful now, as he leaned back on the railing to scuff the ground with a sneakered toe. "I never knew what to say," he replied. "I missed you, though."

"I missed you too." She smiled at him, ran her fingers through her short-cropped hair. "But, uh, I'm going to college now. Majoring in English, minor in information technology. I still don't know what I want to do, but I'm trying to figure it out."

"Wow, that's cool," he nodded, sounding sincere.

Carrie smiled again, feeling a bit awkward, and hiked herself up on the railing to perch on the upper rail. "Um, Mom and Dad are still doing fine. My brother's going to be graduating from high school this spring, but he doesn't want to go to college. He's working at the same pizza place where I worked during high school."

The line moved ahead of them, and Carrie hopped awkwardly down, giving a nervous chuckle as Lance reached out to steady her. "Thanks," she smiled.

"No problem." His smile was sleepy and warm, as friendly as she remembered it.

"You know, I still have that scar from when you hit me with the wooden sword," she said suddenly, a play-fight springing to memory. Without conscious thought, her hand went to the back of her head, where the scar remained. "When I jumped out of the tree on you?"

"Oh man, I remember that," he laughed. "You were bleeding all over the place, I thought I'd killed you. Your parents were so mad at me. I didn't think they'd ever let us play together again."

"And I needed ten stitches," she recalled. "The funniest thing was that when I was in the hospital getting sewn up, I kept asking my parents where you were, and begging them to get you."

He chuckled softly. "God, I haven't thought about that in years. We really had some good times."

"I know. I wish we hadn't moved."

"Tell me about it."

Conversation stilled for a few moments then, as the line moved forward. Carrie caught Karyn looking back at her, eyebrows raised high in curiosity; she gave the redhead a smile, and Karyn winked back before returning her rapt attention to JC.

"So, uh..." Lance began, and she looked at him again, seeing his eyes lowered ever so slightly beneath the curved brim of his baseball cap. "I'm gonna make a dork out of myself here, but I just have to ask and get this out of my system. Do you have a boyfriend back at college?"

Carrie felt her cheeks go bright red, unexpectedly so, at that question, but she gave a negative shake of her head as she answered. "Never have time, I'm always busy with classes and studying. Plus I, uh, don't really like going out and partying, so that sort of limits my options."

"You're babbling," he noted with an amused smile.

"I'll stop." Mortification was quick to set in. Carrie felt nervous all over, like she could jump out of her skin at any second.

"It's cute."

* * *

The day passed quickly -- not so surprising, Carrie thought later, under the circumstances. JC, Chris, and Lance proved to be hilarious companions: Chris, especially, goofed around to everything conceivable. At one point, while the group was wandering aimlessly through Tomorrowland, Chris suddenly snatched Karyn's ball cap off her head and took off running. Karyn gave chase, realizing only moments too late that he was headed into the water-sculpture fountains adorning the central part of the area. Thoroughly soaked, she gave up being mad and just laughed, while Chris danced around to the music coming from a nearby shop.

As the shadows began to grow long, though, the group felt themselves beginning to lag. They paused in an ice cream shop for sundaes and cones and, sprawling on old-fashioned chairs, debated what to do next.

"How about the Jungle Cruise one more time, and then we call it a day?" JC suggested. Not too surprisingly, he glanced over at Karyn before any of the others; Carrie stifled a smile at that. Once Karyn had overcome her initial astonishment at the fact that she was hanging out with three of the guys from her favorite group, she had reverted to her naturally charming -- if a little excitable -- self, and it hadn't taken long for JC to start standing a bit closer to her in line, grabbing the seat next to her on rides, and generally paying more attention to her than anyone else. It was positively adorable, in Carrie's opinion.

"Sounds good to me, I'm beat," Lindsey replied. Near her, Chris was sprawled full-length on a low concrete wall that bordered a flower-bed, pretending to be dead. They were all currently ignoring him. As Lindsey took another spoonful of her sundae, she raised her eyebrows at Carrie questioningly.

Carrie, who had a double-dip cone, was sitting next to Lance, again to the surprise of no one. She nodded to her friend as she lipped at her cone. Swallowing, she said, "Yeah, I'm fried. I'm about ready to fall down on the hotel bed and not move for at least twelve hours."

"Aww, but I wanted to go and do all-night bowling," Chris whined. Lance rolled his eyes.

"Seriously. I know tonight's kind of out, but we were thinking about getting together and doing movies and stuff at my place tomorrow, and I think we'd all enjoy your company." Lance finished the invitation with a pleading look directed at Carrie, who blinked and then blushed.

"You're kidding," she said.

"Oh God, please tell me you're not kidding," Karyn said at the same time, drawing laughter from Lindsey and JC.

"Nope, totally serious," Lance said. "Come on, we can watch scary movies and freak each other out. I promise we're all safe."

Carrie couldn't hold up to his endearing, begging gaze. Sighing, she dropped her head and shrugged, giving into the inevitable. "All right, all right... it's not like we had any plans for tomorrow..."

Karyn cheered, Lindsey laughed, and Chris, startled, jumped to his feet with a yelp. "What? I didn't do it!" he cried, making Lindsey laugh even harder.

In unison, JC and Lance replied, "I didn't do it, nobody saw me do it, you can't prove anything."

"Well, yeah." Settling down again, Chris reached for his rapidly melting dish of ice cream. Before he could take a bite, JC grabbed it, yanking it across the table. Chris dove after it; JC handed it off to Lance, who passed it to Carrie, and the dish made several rounds before finally returning to the hands of its rightful owner. By then, though, the ice cream was completely melted. Chris tossed it into the trash with a disgusted glare at JC.

"Is he really mad?" Carrie asked Lance quietly, feeling a bit of worry.

"Nah," Lance replied, equally _sotto voce_. "Chris did that to JC the last time we all got ice cream, it's just payback."

After they took the Jungle Cruise for the final time -- Chris and Karyn saying half of the punchlines along with the 'cruise director', who cheerfully let them shout the final awful pun of the night -- the group wandered out toward the parking lot. They parted at the main gate, since Chris, JC and Lance had to go around to a VIP area to get to their ride; while Lance scribbled down directions to his place, the others exchanged hugs. Finally, Carrie tucked the paper away for safekeeping in her purse, and, feeling awkward with the others watching her, stepped close to Lance for a quick hug. He was warm, solid; his arms felt natural around her, and she felt suddenly that she didn't want the moment to end.

Fighting back that unexpected emotion, she stepped back and smiled. "See you tomorrow."

"Yeah," he agreed, with a sleepy smile, and headed off with the others. As Carrie turned towards the parking lot, she suppressed a grin. Suddenly, tomorrow couldn't come fast enough.

* * *

"I'm not getting up today."

Karyn's pronouncement, from the depths of the bedclothes she'd claimed, earned her a tossed pillow from Lindsey. "Yes you are," the blond informed her, resuming the toweling of her hair; she'd just emerged from the shower, and Carrie was now in the bathroom. Though it was early yet, the girls had wanted to be on the road as soon as possible in order to grab prime beach space; they had been planning on swimming and working on their tans today.

"I feel sick," the bedclothes moaned, not moving.

"You're nervous because of tonight," said Lindsey with a rather annoying air of practicality. "You'll be fine once we get on the road."

"No I won't. I'll get motion sickness, and then you'll wish you never woke me up."

"We'll bring a barf bag."

"Is she _still_ complaining?" Carrie asked as she came out of the bathroom. She'd showered the night before, so she'd only needed to change; now, as she began to stuff a few things into a carrysack, she raised a querying eyebrow at Lindsey.

The blond nodded by way of reply. "I think she's dying," she confided in a stage whisper. "Maybe we should kill her now and put her out of her misery."

"Maybe we should," Carrie responded thoughtfully, a gleam entering her eyes. "I mean, it's not like she'd really regret missing out on the chance to meet Justin and Joey... that's their names, right?"

"We only heard them about a million times on the way home last night," Lindsey said in affirmation. "Oh well. I guess I'd better do it now and get it over with. We can call the Orlando police department on the way out."

As she approached Karyn's bed, the redhead exploded from under the covers with a fierce growl, glaring at Lindsey.

"Fine! I'm up, I'm going. But I'm _not_ having a good time, and if I do get sick, it'll be _all your fault_!"

Lindsey and Carrie just laughed as Karyn stalked into the bathroom to shower.

* * *

The beach they discovered, with directions from the hotel's concierge, turned out to be a pleasantly quiet one, with only a few other folks around: a few women already lay out, tanning; a man played with his daughter, while surfers tested the waves further out into the water.

Once they had found the most perfect spot on the beach, Karyn proceeded to lay back on her towel, turn on her Walkman, oil herself up and tune out the world. Carrie and Lindsey tried the water first, but found it a bit too rough -- and salty -- for their tastes, and soon they, too, retreated to the safety of the towels and the mind-numbing bliss of soaking up the sun, safely protected by lotion and hats.

The day spent in an appropriately relaxing manner, the girls headed back to the hotel well before sunset to change, prepare for the evening, and grab a quick bite to eat. Then, with a jittery Karyn nervously jumping around, they took the rental car out to Lance's house.

"That's a left on Wilhelm," Lindsey, the navigator, pointed out to Carrie, who was driving.

"I don't see Wilhelm yet," Carrie replied.

"There it is, coming up."

"I'm so nervous!"

"Shut up, Karyn."

"Well, I am!"

"Stop bouncing."

"She's getting on my nerves. Is she getting on your nerves?"

"Go straight through that light. Yeah, mine too."

"I still think we should have killed her."

"Or at least kept her away from the caffeine."

"GUYS--!"

"Look, there it is. Security gate and all."

Carrie pulled into the first part of the driveway, rolling down her window so she could address the speaker placed outside the gate. To be honest with herself, she was as nervous as Karyn; tentative reformed friendship with Lance notwithstanding, she still wasn't entirely sure about this whole business. With a sigh, she pushed the 'call' button on the speaker. A moment later, a slightly staticky voice sounded from it.

"Hello?" The voice was unfamiliar to Carrie; Karyn started to yelp something in the back seat, but covered her mouth quickly.

"Um, hi, it's Carrie and Lindsey and Karyn..." She trailed off, wanting to giggle at the tremble in her voice.

"Oh, hey, guys. I'll buzz you in." True to the unknown speaker's word, the gates opened moments later, and Carrie turned the car up into the driveway.

It was a decent-sized house, not overly huge; modest, even, although Carrie was impressed with the landscaping and the overall open, airy layout of the place. As they pulled the car up in front of the garage, Karyn continued to bounce in the backseat. "That was Justin!" she exclaimed finally when Lindsey gave her an irritated glare.

"Try to contain yourself," the blonde said dryly.

"I _still_ think we should have killed her," Carrie muttered, turning off the car and reaching for her purse. Even as they started to get out, the front door opened, and Lance emerged, followed in short order by his bandmates.

Carrie recognized JC and Chris, of course; she'd been acquainted with the other two, Justin and Joey, by dint of Karyn impressing the CD sleeve of their debut album into her eyes the night before. They looked a little different, though, besides simply seeming older: Justin had grown his hair out some, letting it relax into a natural, darker ash-blonde shade, while Joey's hair was tipped in bright red.

"Hey!" Lance greeted Carrie with a hug, following that action up with the other girls, and JC and Chris were quick to follow. Introductions were made, and it didn't take long for the scene to become a virtual hugfest; Joey and Justin joined in on the action quickly and with a will. When Chris started running around jumping on the other guys' backs, Lance shouted at everyone to go inside.

Pizza had already been ordered -- a few different kinds, for variety; Carrie could smell the delicious scents wafting out from deeper in the house as soon as she entered it. Grinning, she closed her eyes and held her arms out, mummy-style, drawing out her blissful call of "piiiiizzaaaaaaaa....".

"In here, in here." Lance led them into a large rec room, lavishly appointed with a computer, video game consoles, and at one end, a big-screen television set around with couches. The pizza boxes sat on the coffee table, while a nearby mini-fridge offered soda and beverages to go along with the food.

Carrie's initial apprehension swiftly disappeared as they all settled in to eat. The first movie having been selected -- _Scream_ , to movie-buff Lindsey's delight -- everyone arranged themselves on the couches and floor. Things seemed fairly low-key; Karyn wasn't complaining about JC resting himself against her legs, nor was Lindsey annoyed at the fact that Joey was sitting next to her, passing her the occasional slice of pizza. From the other couch, Chris offered scathing and usually hilarious commentary on the movie; Justin sprawled on the floor, closest to the pizza, and Carrie sat next to him, leaning on the side of the smaller couch where Lance sat. Personal space was at a minimum, but no one seemed to mind.

They managed to make it through _Scream_ and _I Know What You Did Last Summer_ before Chris and Karyn started twitching, their usual short attention spans finally driven to the point of no return. Chris started chasing Justin around the room while the others yelled at them to be quiet, since they wanted to see the ending. Justin came back and stuck a handful of ice down Carrie's back; she shrieked, and while the others started taunting Justin about how he shouldn't pick on girls named Carrie, she ran after him, pinned him and noogied him for all she was worth.

* * *

Finally, Lance intervened, suggesting swimming as a safe alternative to the roughhousing. He had an in-ground pool in the back of the house, and although it was dark by now, the lighting system outside was more than adequate. Cheering the idea, the girls ran to get their swimsuits; the guys had suits already there, and it wasn't long before everyone had changed and jumped into the pool.

Once the initial jumping and splashing wars abated, they settled on playing Marco Polo. Carrie decided to pass, relaxing on a lounge chair instead. Though she felt more than a bit overwhelmed by the night and everything that had happened, she wasn't unhappy at all. Every now and then, she'd let her gaze linger on Lance, and felt a pleasant thrill go through her when his eyes met hers in return. _He is so darn cute_ , she thought. _What a shame_...

"I'm gonna getcha, I'm gonna getcha," Chris whispered behind her. She hadn't noticed him leave the game, but there he was, sneaking around in his swimming trunks, his hair plastered to his head. He was rubbing his hands together, a gleeful look on his face; instinctively, Carrie felt herself cringe, wondering what he was up to now.

"Don't even _think_ about it," she informed him haughtily, closing her eyes again.

He gasped melodramatically. "Oh! No, my goddess, you will not ignore me!" At her giggles, he let out a maniacal laugh. "If that's the way it will be then... if I can't have you, no one will!"

"Chris!" But it was too late; she let out a shrieking giggle as he hoisted her into his arms, stepped over to the pool, and let her fly.

The others had already cleared away to make room, seeing what Chris was up to; it was horrible luck, then, that every pair of eyes in the pool saw the arc of her body, witnessing the trajectory too late to change it. Even as Lance surged forward, even as Chris ran around the pool to try and correct his mistake, time passed and caught up with them again.

Carrie hit the water with a hard splash a moment after the crown of her head thunked loudly against the concrete edge of the pool. In an instant, she sank like a stone; Lance had reached her by then, though, and was already dragging her out from under the water as Justin shouted, "Call 911!" Chris had already run inside to do so; Joey and JC were quick to get out of the pool, coming around to the side to help Lance lift Carrie out.

Numbed, Karyn and Lindsey followed them inside as they took Carrie to a couch and laid her down. Lance was smoothing back her hair; Karyn could see his lips working, though no sound could be heard, as he felt at her head to try and see how bad the injury was. She seemed to be breathing; when Lance's fingers brushed across the spot that had cracked on the cement, her body gave a shudder and she moaned softly. Lance's fingers came away spotted with red, though, and the fear in his eyes spoke louder than any words could say.

An ambulance, sirens blaring, arrived in short order. The EMTs were quick and efficient, taking Carrie into the ambulance on a stretcher and checking her vitals as they went. Lance went with them, a towel wrapped around his waist and some clean clothes clutched in one hand. It didn't take long for the others to divvy up cars and, changed into regular clothes again, follow to the closest hospital.

Karyn led the others in through the emergency entrance; she was feeling more guilty about the incident than possibly even Chris. She'd wailed about it to Lindsey in the car on the way, and now she ran up to a nurse and asked to see where her friend was. Informed that Carrie had been admitted and was being seen to already, she miserably retreated to a waiting room chair and sat, tears slowly dripping down her already-wet face. JC sat with her, trying to console her.

At first, the group of young adults didn't cause much sensation in the waiting room. Chris stayed outside, pacing, with Justin trying to talk him down; Joey waited with Lindsey, the pair of them near Karyn and JC. They were all still somewhat wet, hair bedraggled around their faces; but gradually, more and more heads began to turn, peering curiously at what appeared to be familiar eyes, hair, faces... When Justin and Chris came in at last, it was with a couple of girls trailing them -- one with a casted ankle, hobbling on crutches -- and Justin quietly explaining to them that this really wasn't a great time for autographs, maybe later?

Eventually, a clothed Lance emerged from a pair of swinging doors that led into the emergency area. As everyone converged on him, he held his hands up. "She's okay," he said first, anticipating the questions.

"Is she awake?" Karyn asked.

"Can we see her?" Lindsey said, right on her heels.

"She's not awake right now, she's being transferred to a private room. We can go up and see her then, but not for long, because it's after visiting hours. And they don't care who the heck we are," he added, with a regretful face that looked as if he had tried to pull the 'I'm world famous' routine.

"How's her head?" Chris asked. He had managed to work past his guilt to some extent; ranting outside with Justin had helped, but he still felt responsible to some extent.

"She did crack it; there's a little bit of swelling, but it shouldn't be too bad. They've got ice on it now, and she's got a headache, but they don't think she has a concussion or anything. They just want to keep her overnight for observation."

With that news, they regrouped in a small circle of chairs, most of them holding on to each other to afford the small comfort their companionship provided. Karyn found herself murmuring repeated thanks to JC for his shoulder, which she'd profusely stained with her tears; he shrugged it off, smiling. Though they were all reassured to some extent, they still wanted to see her and confirm Lance's words; Lance most of all.

Soon enough, a nurse appeared, informing them of the room to which Carrie had been transferred. Though she didn't seem too thrilled about allowing them up to see her, she escorted them there, informing them sharply that only two people could visit her at a time, and the visits would have to be kept short.

Pair by pair -- Lindsey and Joey, Karyn and JC, Chris and Justin -- they each slipped into her room to see her. Carrie was asleep, though, and remained so throughout Lindsey's heartfelt wish that she feel better, Karyn's tear-stricken apology of pushing to meet the guys, Chris' equally upset apology at his part in the accident. Carrie's face was peaceful, almost serene, below the light bandage wrapped around her temple, holding the icepack in place; seeing her like that, with only an intravenous drip in one wrist, reassured them all to some extent. Finally, with last touches, they drifted out. Lance hugged them all, made promises to call, and then went back into the room to stay there until she awoke.

* * *

When Carrie swam into wakefulness again, she felt an immediate sense of disorientation sweep over her. She didn't recognize the room; it wasn't her hotel room, nor her dorm room. After a moment, though, she realized that she must still be in the hospital. The temporary stall of the ER had been replaced with real walls, a window, a television mounted up towards the ceiling, and across the room was another hospital bed with the usual surveillance devices around its headboard.

With consciousness came pain, a headache that throbbed over her whole face. Wincing against the light, she realized that Lance was sitting in a chair next to her. As she stirred, making a soft noise deep in her throat, he leaned over her; the look in his green eyes was warm enough to melt her through her sheets.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"Head hurts," she murmured. He turned immediately, reaching for two small paper cups sitting on the nightstand, and handed them to her. One held two tablets of Tylenol; the other, water. She took them in order, handing the cups gratefully back to him afterwards.

"Where are the others?" she asked as she gingerly pushed herself up into a bit more of a seated position.

Lance leaned over to help reposition her pillows. "Karyn and Lindsey went back to your hotel, but they'll probably be over sometime today if you don't get released. JC gave them a ride."

"Oh. Okay." The room wasn't spinning, which she counted as a great step up from the previous evening, but she didn't feel much in the way of energy, either. It was nice to so he could face her, and she found it easier to look at him from this angle. "What time is it?" she asked.

"Around eleven in the morning." He smiled. "And before you ask, Karyn called your parents, so they do know what's going on. They're worried, but she told them you'd call today if you were feeling better, and they have the number here if anything happens."

Carrie nodded at that, feeling relief ease the knot of tension that had been tied in her stomach. She was safe, she was all right; even if she didn't really feel up to much, that was okay for now.

Absently, her gaze drifted to the window. Curtains obscured the bright, sunny Florida day without, but the light was still bright enough to hurt her eyes just a little. Then she felt Lance take one of her hands in his, and -- cautiously -- she tracked her eyes back to meet his.

"I'm glad you're all right," he said softly, his words careful, as if he'd been preparing them. "I don't know what I would have done if..."

"Oh, shush," she smiled. "Don't talk like that. I'm all right."

"I know, and I'm thankful for it. But it scares me anyway. I just found you again, and I don't want to lose you. Not so soon, not like that."

His hands squeezed hers, seeming to send a flutter of shivers all the way up and into her stomach. Her eyes dropped to his hands, then rose to meet his gaze again. The look in his eyes was fathomless, full of emotion -- things Carrie would swear she'd never seen in anyone's eyes before. Caring and devotion shone there, and more...

"Lance," she heard herself whisper.

"Hm?" He kept looking at her for a few more moments, then shook himself abruptly, as if coming out of a trance. "Sorry."

She felt the burning need to change the topic. "You know, I was thinking about that last night, while I was kind of drifting in and out of consciousness. About us meeting up again?" He nodded, and she went on. "It's, like, this completely bizarre coincidence that we managed to meet at all. If we'd decided to go to Daytona Beach or something instead of DisneyWorld for spring break, or if we hadn't decided to go on that ride at that time, or if you'd come to the park just an hour earlier or later... you know?" She chuckled. "And then I started to think about this grand cosmic scale, and I think that's when the painkillers kicked in."

Lance smiled at that. "I know I'd be sad if I'd never had the chance to meet you again."

"Yeah, except we wouldn't really be sad," she pointed out. "Neither of us would have known. We just would have gone on with our lives."

"Maybe it was more than a coincidence, then."

Carrie looked up at him. Her dark eyes were guileless, innocent -- and puzzled. Lance rubbed the back of her hand as he went on. "I'm not a great believer in fate or destiny. I mean, I believe in free will, even though God is at the center of everything... but sometimes I wondered about things, especially when the group got together. It was just such a neat set of coincidences that the guys and I agreed it couldn't just be luck. And running into you, hanging out with you again... it's kind of felt the same way."

He saw the corner of her mouth quirk up in a doubtful smile at that. Unable to help himself, he reached out with one hand, cupping the side of her face in his palm. "I'm so glad we found each other, it doesn't matter to me how it happened. All I know is I don't want to lose you again."

Carrie was vaguely aware that she'd stopped breathing at some point, possibly when he'd reached over to touch her; or maybe it was as he'd come closer to her, his face there before her, real and honest and true. All she knew was that she didn't want this moment to ever end. And then it got even better, because his lips were soft and smooth, deliciously warm on hers, and his other arm was sliding around her back, cradling her close to him. She slid her arms around his back and held him, held onto him, feeling everything else fall away from her attention; nothing else mattered, now, but this moment for which she felt she'd been waiting ten years.

A sound from the door -- someone clearing their throat in a pointed manner -- separated them, and Carrie felt herself blushing as she turned to see a doctor, dressed in colorful scrubs, leaning in the doorway. Lance handled it a little better, although he did stand up rather quickly.

"If I may interrupt," Dr. Auschfeld, for so her nametag indicated, smiled. She had a chart in one hand, a pen in the other. "I just need Carrie to sign this so we can get her released. Carrie, I do hope this is your boyfriend?" One dark eyebrow quirked significantly.

Carrie nodded, unable to speak for the lump of embarrassment in her throat. She accepted the pen meekly and signed where indicated.

"All right. We'll have an orderly by with a wheelchair soon, and you'll be free to go. No more hitting your head on swimming pools, got it?" Despite her stern tone, the doctor's eyes were sparkling with good humor, and Carrie managed a smile in return before Dr. Auschfeld turned and left.

* * *

Lance took Carrie back to his house; she had a set of hospital scrubs for the time being, since no one had thought to grab her clothes when the ambulance had taken her. To her surprise, the rest of 'N Sync, Lindsey, and Karyn were all there already, having been alerted by Lance that Carrie was being released.

As Carrie entered the house, Karyn ran up to her, engulfing her friend in a hug. "I'm sorry!" was all she could get out.

Behind her, Lindsey shrugged. "She has guilt," the blonde explained.

Carrie giggled, hugging Karyn back. "It's okay, Karyn, I'm not mad at you."

"Really?" Karyn pulled back to look at Carrie.

"Really. I'm fine. It's okay," Carrie reassured her.

"I'm sorry, too," Chris said, slipping up next to Karyn.

"Oh, now, you I don't know if I can forgive." But Carrie's amused tone gave the lie to her words, and she hugged Chris while the others chuckled.

Out of deference to Carrie -- who claimed to be feeling fine, but still felt a bit shaky walking around -- the afternoon was spent quietly. JC and Karyn left after a while, having decided earlier that they were going to take in a movie; they tried to entice the others into joining them, but as the closeness between them was becoming more apparent, everyone else decided to let them be alone together. Soon after, Joey, Lindsey, Chris, and Justin headed out as well, with plans for clubbing or some such bumming around. That left Lance and Carrie alone again, not that Carrie terribly minded.

Lance cooked, to Carrie's pleased surprise, and they ate dinner out on his back porch, with candles lit and soft music playing from the stereo system that had been built to extend throughout the house. They talked about nothing in particular during dinner; afterwards, Carrie grew silent, watching the sunset's colors richen the sky.

"What are you thinking about?" Lance asked when she stayed quiet for a few minutes.

She chuckled, leaning back in her chair to look at him. "Just about... I don't know. Silly stuff."

"What?" he pressed, genuinely interested now -- and intrigued by the blush starting to creep across her cheeks. Though she was dressed casually -- capris, a tank top, her hair kept back with a simple band -- there was something wonderfully feminine about her, a simple elegance, of which he couldn't seem to get enough.

"You know I had a crush on you when we were little, right?" she asked, not waiting for his answer. "I thought you were the greatest person in the world, bar none. You were my hero, my knight in shining armor. I thought the sun rose and set at your command."

Lance couldn't suppress a grin at that. "I noticed something of the sort, yeah," he admitted.

"Well, when I was about eleven, I came up with this great notion that you and I would end up together. One day, you'd realize that I was a girl, with, you know, girl parts..." Her blush grew brighter at that as Lance chuckled at her. "Not just your best friend who happened to be a girl. And you'd fall madly in love with me, and we'd just, you know, be together forever."

"And then you moved," he supplied, seeing her eyes darken.

"And then we moved." She looked out at the darkening sky again. "And when you didn't come to say goodbye before we left... it just about broke my heart. I thought I'd never forgive you for it. Then, after a while, I just gave up the thought of ever seeing you again... but you know what's really funny?"

"What's that?"

"The reason I don't have a boyfriend now, I didn't really go out on dates in high school. It was because I couldn't find anyone who measured up to the standard you set for me. No one was funny enough, or smart enough, or cute enough. I guess I still had my heart set on you."

Lance's smile was sleepy, sweet; Carrie fought the feeling of breathlessness that bubbled up inside her again, and lost. _Why does it have to be like this?_ she asked herself, resigned.

"You know, it's not too late."

"How's that?" she asked.

"We have a second chance now," he said, standing up. The music was still playing, if only faintly audible, and he reached a hand out to her. "Would you like to dance?"

"Oh," was all she could say.

As they moved together, her body lightly cradled to his, Carrie pressed her head to his warm shoulder and breathed in the scent of him, of soap and maleness combined, and tried not to cry.

* * *

When Carrie returned to the hotel room later that evening, she discovered that she was the only one there. Apparently Karyn and Lindsey were still out with JC and Joey; a note on the small writing desk indicated that they'd stopped in briefly to change, as was evident by the clothes tossed around on one of the double beds.

Carrie didn't mind having the room to herself, though. Considering how whirlwind everything had been over the past couple of days, she actually found it a pleasant change of pace to be able to relax in solitude for at least a short period of time. As she picked up clothes, sorting them idly into piles by ownership, she found her mind returning to Lance.

Not a big shock, really; she had enjoyed it a lot, being with him, seeing his face and listening to his voice as he rambled about different topics: he wanted to get together and do something tomorrow; hang out, maybe go horseback riding or jet-skiing. The squeeze of emotion in her heart when she thought of him wasn't really surprising to her, either. For as long as she'd felt that breathless crush, she thought, she had to be used to it by now.

But this wasn't really the same. It wasn't that dogging-his-heels, hanging-on-his-every-word feel; it was something more, she thought. Her heart had skipped a couple of beats when he'd kissed her in the hospital - and oh, how sweet that had been, it made her heart flip again just to think of it. Yet she still wasn't sure what to make of it; all he'd said about not wanting to lose her again could be little more than words, considering she had a plane to get on in three days.

In three days she'd be back in Indiana. Quite likely never to hear from him again.

Carrie felt pinpricks of tears sting her eyes when that realization came to mind. She didn't want to lose him again. The man that he was now -- not the boy she'd been best friends with then -- was someone new to her, someone she wanted to know and love. But even if he did feel the same way, it didn't matter, because it would all be over in a few more days. Just another Spring Break fling, something to chalk up for the records, she thought with wry cynicism -- "Yeah, remember the year we met 'N Sync?"

She didn't want it to be like that. But she couldn't see any other choices, and it felt like she was running into a dead end to continue thinking about it. Besides, she was probably just making more out of it than it was -- she'd had crushes before, misinterpreted the guy's friendly flirting as more than that, and ended up crushed when she'd realized the guy never actually had any romantic interest in her.

That must be it, of course: Lance was just humoring her by pretending to like her, letting her play out the fantasy she'd cheerfully told him about. Once she was gone, out of his life for good, he'd forget about her -- just like he had before -- and go on with his life.

 _Fine, then_ , she thought, stabbing at the remote control to turn on the television. _If he's going to be that way, I'll just play it cool. I don't need to get my heart stomped on by him_. With a sigh, she settled down on the bed to channel-surf. Right now she needed some mindless TV to let her brain unwind... and to distract her from the increasingly prominent, everpresent thoughts of Lance.

All too soon, Karyn and Lindsey came bouncing into the room. Carrie wasn't terribly surprised at this; she'd heard their voices coming down the hall, and their laughter as they'd fumbled with the keycard outside the door. What did surprise her -- and make her glad she hadn't changed for bed yet -- was that JC and Joey were with them. As the four poured into the room, rolling in on the sound of laughter and a ringing cell-phone, Carrie rolled her eyes and doused the sound from the television.

"Carrie!" Karyn grinned, disentangling herself from JC, whose phone it was that was ringing, and jumping on the bed to hug her friend. "You're back!"

"So are you," Carrie chuckled as she returned the hug. "You were expecting maybe Santa Claus?"

"Ooh, Santa? Where?" Joey squealed in a high-pitched voice. A grinning Lindsey shoved him onto the other bed, and he fell like a stone. Carrie rolled her eyes as she stood up, glancing toward the bathroom where JC had disappeared.

"Where'd you drag the riffraff in from, Linds?" Carrie asked, rummaging in her purse.

"Ooh, we went out dancing, and then we found this beach, and then we got kicked _off_ this beach..."

"That was not my fault!" JC called from the bathroom, sending Joey and Lindsey into laughter again.

"And then Chris decided to wimp out and call it a night, so we thought we'd come back here and bug you. Don't you love us?" Karyn giggled up at Carrie. She wasn't drunk; Karyn didn't drink, but she did get what she called 'contact highs' off of hanging around people, and her capacity for silliness knew no bounds once she got started.

"Sure I love you," Carrie sighed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to make like a fifth wheel and roll."

Lindsey had laid down on the bed next to Joey, but she stood up again to corner Carrie by the door. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm just going to get pop from the machine. Anyone else want anything?" Carrie was promptly bombarded with orders, and when JC emerged from the bathroom again, he offered to go with her and help carry the pop back.

Carrie gave a mental grumble, but agreed; she couldn't very well tell him no. Sparing a glance back at the three in the room, she grabbed her keycard and opened the door for JC.

"You seem down," he commented to her, his tone subdued, as they walked down the hallway.

"Just feeling a bit out of it, I guess," she replied. "And before you ask, my head's fine."

"The heart then, huh?" She gave him a quizzical look, and he smiled. "I know things must have gone okay with Lance, but you're still upset. Hey, if you want to talk about it..."

Carrie shrugged. "I don't know what there is to talk about. It's nice to see him again, yay, he likes me, and I'm leaving in three days. As are Karyn and Lindsey, I might add," she pointed out as they reached the small vending room.

"This is true, but nothing's keeping us from staying in touch."

"Great idea," she replied, "doesn't always work in practice." She began to feed dollar bills into the machine, retrieving the plastic 20-ounce bottles one at a time.

"You're really hurting, aren't you?"

Carrie raised her head to snap a sarcastic reply, but seeing his face, she realized that JC's intent wasn't harmful at all. Her eyes glimmered with tears before she looked back to the machine and pushed one of the buttons, jamming at it with perhaps a bit more force than necessary.

"Hey." He rested a gentle hand on her shoulder. "What is it?"

Sniffling hard, Carrie leaned back against the opposite wall. "I just... I don't know why Lance is treating me like he's been. He's acting like he really feels for me... I mean, like he likes me, like he doesn't want me to go."

"Maybe that's because he doesn't want to let you go."

"Maybe it's because he's humoring me because I've had this fantasy of us getting together since I was eight years old," she said softly. "I mean, he knows as well as I do that I have to be back in Bloomington for classes on Monday. It's not like I can just give up my life and be here with him."

"I'm sure he realizes that, but Lance isn't the kind of guy who would lead you on. Believe me, he may be older than he was when you knew him, but he's still got the integrity and honesty he's always had. You should know that."

Carrie stared at the floor, contemplating JC's words. He made sense; one part of her understood that, intrinsically. Yet she couldn't help but still be scared, even with all her internal arguments unwound. She didn't want a long-distance relationship with Lance. She wanted it all or nothing.

"You're right," she said softly, rubbing at her eyes with the back of one hand. "I just don't want to think about the fact that here I've got him again, and that he's looking at me the way I always hoped he'd look at me, and I have to turn around and leave him."

"It's okay," JC said softly, soothingly, and gently pulled her into a hug. Carrie had cried before, but she was surprised to find her tears coming anew, if less energetically, as JC held her in a warm, sweet embrace. After a few minutes, she felt the tight sensation in her chest begin to ease and pulled away from him so she could wipe her eyes.

"Thanks," she mumbled, sniffling.

"Anytime," he replied with a smile. "Now come on, let's get back to the room before they think we ran away together."

As they walked back down the hall, twenty-ounces in their arms, Carrie cocked her head at JC. "So you really think he's serious about me?"

"Damn straight."

"You know, I think I like you, Chasez. Just don't hurt my best friend and we'll be all right."

JC's laughter rang out as they entered the room again.

"Where have you been?" Karyn jumped up out of the chair in which she'd been sitting, coming over to help distribute the sodas. "I was starting to think we'd never see you again."

"Maybe I decided to give you a run for your money," Carrie replied teasingly.

"Carrie! You've been crying. What's wrong?" Karyn gave JC back the sodas she'd taken from him, grasping Carrie's shoulders instead.

"Just some stuff I had to talk out. I'm okay." Carrie ducked out of Karyn's grasp, setting her bottles down on the counter by the sink so that she could wash her face quickly. Karyn turned her curious look on JC, who just smiled enigmatically.

"Someone's gonna tell me what's going on!"

"Or what?" asked Lindsey, smiling lazily.

"Or I'll... poke Joey to death!"

"Oh, there's a good threat," JC laughed.

"Hey!" Joey and Lindsey cried, indignant, at the same time.

"Hey look, you guys are gonna have to get going." Carrie leaned back out of the small bathroom area. "It's late, and Lance said something about wanting to go out and do stuff tomorrow. Plus, if you stay, it's gonna get loud..."

"You mean louder than it already has been," Lindsey put in.

"And we really don't need the hotel kicking us out."

"All right, all right. Party pooper." With heart-wrenching (and completely fake) looks of sadness, Joey and JC grabbed their hats, sunglasses, and sodas, distributed hugs to the three girls, and departed, Joey lingering so long that Carrie pretended to boot him in the butt to get him out the door. Finally they were gone, though, and the girls started to get ready for bed.

"Carrie Adams," Karyn started almost immediately.

"Wha?" Carrie asked around a mouthful of toothbrush and toothpaste.

"You are going to tell me what got you all upset. Was it Lance? Did he do something?"

Carrie rolled her eyes, not bothering to respond until she was done brushing her teeth. "Lance didn't _do_ anything," she said as she gathered up her shower items. "It's just that I got the impression he was acting like he likes me just to humor me, and JC set me straight about it."

"So he really likes you? That's soooo cool." Karyn gave a rapturous sigh, leaning back against the closet.

"I guess," Carrie said, sounding a little doubtful even to herself. "We had a really nice time, and being around him feels so natural. Like we hadn't missed a day of being together in the eight years we were apart. Anyway," she went on, shaking herself, "I'm gonna take my shower. I guess we'll see what tomorrow brings, huh?"

* * *

The next couple of days passed blissfully, and without any more accidents. As promised, Lance called the next morning, having arranged for them to go horseback riding at a local stable. Not too surprisingly, Justin and Chris wouldn't be accompanying them, as they were starting to feel a little like third wheels; it was just as well, since they had to put in some time in the studio working on post-production details for their almost-complete second American release. When Carrie passed on the news that they might get to drop by and hear a few snippets, she thought Karyn would pass out on the bed from pure happiness.

Horseback riding turned out to be a lot of fun, though most of them had very little experience with riding; the horses were placid, trained to go where they were pointed, and the guys took the ribbing about their prior stint as riders in good stead. Unfortunately, about halfway through their hour, they came across another group, a family whose two young daughters instantly recognized the 'N Sync members. When the pair shrieked in unison, Lindsey's horse reared, pawing the air in confusion at the sudden noise.

Luckily, Lance was able to grab the aptly-named Rascal's reins and settle him without too much problem. While he did so, JC explained to the family that they were trying to have a quiet day off; they managed to get away with only autographs signed, and as soon as the family had left, hurriedly headed away in a different direction.

They took a break in a clearing a good distance away from the stable, most of them staggering off of their horses and wincing in pain. JC flopped onto the ground with a groan, and Karyn plopped her head down on his stomach; nearby, Joey and Lindsey leaned against a treetrunk, her eyes closed as she rested in his gentle embrace. Only Lance and Carrie seemed to be handling it all right; when the others gave them dirty looks, Carrie just grinned. "Helps to take riding lessons, huh?" That earned her a flung handful of uprooted grass from Karyn's direction.

The original plan had been to swing by the studio after riding, but everyone was so sore by then that they decided to temporarily skip the studio in favor of showers and flagrant use of the Jacuzzi at Lance's. Karyn's various complaints about her aches and pains lasted from the moment they left the stables until she settled into the foaming hot tub; then she gave a heaving sigh of relief and closed her eyes. Lindsey, who'd been somewhat shaken up by the minor incident, simply sat in quiet contentment and leaned on Joey for comfort. JC settled for a hot shower, then joined Lance and Carrie where they sat out on the back porch, having a light lunch.

"Remind me never to listen to one of your ideas again," he told Lance as he scrubbed at his hair with a towel.

"Aw, but you liked the jet-skiing."

"That was different." JC reached over for a handful of chips from the bowl in the center of the table. As he did so, he gave the couple a surreptitious glance. Their chairs were close to each other, and he could have sworn he'd seen them holding their hands under the table, a pose they'd dropped abruptly when he'd come outside. He allowed himself an inner smile as he leaned back in the chair, eating some of his chips.

Apparently his advice had worked, because he'd seen more than a few instances of Carrie accepting Lance's presence throughout the morning. They'd been tickling each other at the stables, before being led to their horses, and during the break Lance had sat behind Carrie, cheerfully rubbing her shoulders. JC hoped that they were enjoying themselves as much as he was enjoying being with Karyn, which was quite a bit.

"So are we still swinging by the studio, you crazy lovebirds?" he asked, and was amused at the blush that stained Carrie's face.

"Far as I know. I have some stuff to talk about with Johnny, too," Lance replied. "Got to get some bookings set up."

"You sure we won't be in the way?" Carrie asked, glancing worriedly from one of the young men to the other. "It's not like you have to drag us everywhere you go."

"Aside from the fact that I think Karyn would kill us if we didn't take her," JC began, chuckling, "no, you won't be in the way."

"We want you to come." Lance leaned over a little to squeeze Carrie's hand where it rested on the table. "Seeing as how we don't have a whole lot of time left and all."

"All right," Carrie nodded, though her eyes were just a bit dark at the mention of their limited remaining time.

Soon enough, the others wandered out to the porch, partaking of the food laid out in the kitchen along the way; Karyn was complaining again, this time that her legs wouldn't work because they'd turned to jello in the hot tub, so Joey obligingly carried her out to a chair.

"Are we still going to the studio?" Karyn asked once she'd situated herself, rubbing a towel over her hair.

"Yep," JC nodded. "Unless there's something you'd rather do..."

"Movie!" Lindsey crowed, just for the sheer pleasure of seeing Karyn's face contort in surprise.

"You've got to be kidding me! I'm not gonna miss this just because _you_ feel like seeing a movie--" Karyn's tirade came to an abrupt halt as she took in Lindsey's barely-smothered giggling and the amused looks on the others' faces. "Okay, that was not funny!" she declared. It only made everyone else laugh harder; Karyn gave a final, annoyed glare and subsided into her seat, arms folded, sulking.

Manfully restraining his merriment, JC got up and went over to her. Lindsey turned the others, her eyes still sparkling. "I guess I didn't realize she was counting on it so much," she shrugged. Joey rubbed her back gently.

"She'll be fine," Carrie advised. "You know how long her moods last."

"Well, while she's recovering, I'm going to go change."

"Can I come?" asked Joey, grinning eagerly. Lindsey snorted.

"Down, boy," she said, patting him on the shoulder as she stood and glided inside.

Joey sighed theatrically, resting his chin in his hands; only his sparkling eyes gave the lie to his downcast appearance. "I never get to do anything," he pouted.

"Whine, whine, whine," Lance chuckled.

"You guys seem to be getting along pretty well," Carrie commented, her gaze light on Joey's mock-distraught face. She wasn't worried about Lindsey; her friend was a big girl and could take care of herself. Still...

"Yeah, I guess," Joey replied. "She's... I like her. You're not going to give me the best-friend lecture, are you?"

His worried brown eyes made Carrie chuckle. "No, although something tells me it wouldn't be new for you."

"Well, no," he admitted, smiling winningly. "You don't have to worry. I'm only a lech by reputation."

"Yeah, sure," Lance put in, with a mischievous grin. "We're not going to talk about that time you--"

"No, I don't think you even need to go there," Joey came back, without rancor, "unless you really feel like getting hurt today."

"Ah, all right." Lance leaned back in his chair, eyes still twinkling.

It wasn't long before everyone was ready to go; piled into two cars, they headed out to the recording studios buried in the heart of Orlando, where 'N Sync had been spending the majority of their time over the last few months. Lance and Joey went with Carrie and Lindsey, Karyn in the other car; as they drove, the young men pointed out landmarks here and there, recounting anecdotes of incidents that had happened at each one. By the time they reached the studio, an unassuming building in an largely commercial area, Carrie was shaking her head in amusement.

"Is there any part of this town that you _haven't_ caused trouble in?"

"Not many," Lance admitted. His smile was only slightly sheepish.

They found a parking space next to JC's Jeep; the parking lot itself was set apart from the building by a short walkway, and the guys seemed somehow unsurprised at the small gaggle of young women gathered outside the front door.

"Man, I can't believe they're still there," Joey muttered. He glanced over at the other car, where JC already had his cellphone up to his ear. "All right, JC's calling security."

"You guys have to have security just to get into your own studio?" Lindsey asked, incredulous.

"These girls won't go away, it doesn't matter if we're there or not," Joey replied. For the first time since they'd met him, his eyes were serious, rimmed with annoyance. "It's bad enough on tour, but since they found out we were recording here, it's just... I don't know, weird."

"We signed stuff for them and everything, but it's like they don't have lives or something. I don't want to be mean to them, because they are fans, but they make it really hard to do our job." Lance sighed, and Carrie reached over to squeeze his arm comfortingly.

"I wonder if it'd help if they knew they were hindering you guys from finishing the record they want to hear," Lindsey pointed out.

Joey shook his head. "We tried that. Besides, we get different people and some of them just don't listen."

Soon enough, two men in matching black t-shirts, both tall and well-built, came out of the studio, gently pushing past the girls grouped at the door, and came over to the cars.

"All right," Lance said. "You girls go on with Mike, and Ted will bring us."

"You sure?" Carrie asked as she opened her door.

Lance nodded. "Go."

Carrie felt odd, walking close together with Lindsey and Karyn, under the security guard's close supervision. They passed through the group of fans without causing much of a stir; though as they entered the studio, Carrie could hear them beginning to wonder who the three women were and why they were allowed to go inside. The talk died entirely, replaced by shrieks and giggles when they saw JC, Joey and Lance coming towards them. Leaving his charges inside, Mike went back outside to help his partner fend off the clutches of the adolescent girls, a few of whom were in tears at the sight of their idols.

Fortunately, the gauntlet's challenge was not too difficult today, and the boys made their way inside without too much fuss. Thanking the security guards, they collected the girls and headed down the hall, pausing at the front desk to sign Carrie, Lindsey, and Karyn in as temporary guests.

They were only part of the way down the hall when rushed footsteps heralded the arrival of Justin, who pelted around a corner and barreled right into JC. He was panting, short of breath, and looked as if he'd just run a marathon.

"Save me!" he gasped, ducking behind the group. "She's after me! She's crazy!"

"What did you do," Lance began, pausing to look up as a petite blonde woman appeared around the corner. Her eyes flashed as she caught sight of them.

"All right, where's Timberlake?" she asked, and it was hard to tell if her voice was angry or amused -- or, possibly, both.

"Hey, Britney," JC greeted her with an amiable smile. "What's up?"

"I'm just going to kill that babyfaced blond singer of yours," she remarked, her grin something frightening to behold. "He switched tapes while we were working on our choreography, and if I don't get that tape back so we can get back to work--"

Muffled laughter sounded from behind them; Carrie glanced back, distracted, to see Justin crouched down with both hands clamped over his mouth and his shoulders shaking. Hearing the sound, Britney gave JC a sweet smile and called out, "Justin, you get five seconds!"

The blond singer took off at a run, back towards the reception desk. Britney smiled at them again and then, moving past the group, started after him.

"She's not going to hurt him, is she?" Karyn asked, a bit worried.

"Aw, no. They go way back," JC replied. "So did you enjoy meeting Britney Spears?"

"I'm... not sure," Karyn said guardedly, and they laughed.

* * *

Chris was the only one in the studio when they came in. Seated on a couch toward the back of the control booth, he had one leg propped up on the other, providing a perch for a sleek laptop computer, while a pair of headphones covered his ears, their cord leading into the computer. His face was an interesting mix of puzzlement and interest; he looked completely absorbed in whatever he was doing.

"Chris!" JC shouted, and the older man jumped in surprise at the sound of his name. Scowling at JC, he caught the computer before it could fall to the floor.

"Not funny, dude."

"What's up?"

"Not much, just checking my email and stuff. Getting some final designs for the line, wanted to make sure the pictures I sent were up." He shut down the computer as he spoke, glancing around. "Where's Justin?"

"He's about to get his spleen ripped out, if Britney catches up to him," Joey replied, laughing as he took a seat behind the console.

"Oh, trouble as usual. Well, the engineer'll be back from lunch in a minute, so we can listen to the stuff then."

"Great," Karyn grinned. She plopped down on the couch next to Joey, cracking open a can of soda she'd retrieved from a vending machine on the way down the hall. "I'm starting to feel like a pop star myself, what with the mob of girls outside and all."

"Oh, they're still there?" Chris rolled his eyes expressively. "Man, they're crazy."

"Tell me about it," the redhead sighed. "I love you guys half to death, but I can't imagine spending all my free time camped outside a recording studio in the faint hope I _might_ catch a glimpse of one of you."

"Only half to death?" JC pulled a heartbroken face, and Karyn giggled.

Just then, the door to the studio swept open again. Chris's gaze slid to the person standing there; when he started laughing, the others turned to look. Within moments, everyone was either laughing out loud or trying to smother their giggles at the sight of a thoroughly drenched Justin. His hair was plastered wetly to his skull, water coating his face and down his shoulders as if several buckets had been dumped in rapid succession over his head; the basketball jersey he'd been wearing was rolled up and draped over his shoulder, though it was still dripping despite having apparently been wrung out.

Justin stomped over to a chair and sat, the black cloud on his face doing nothing to deter the others' mirth. Lindsey glanced over at Carrie, her eyes shining with laughter, and that set the girls off again.

"She got you back, huh?" Joey asked, leaning over to pluck at the wet muscle shirt Justin still wore. He got only an annoyed grunt in response.

"Teach you to mess with her." JC glanced up again, his grin not fading at all as he saw the man who had delivered that statement, an amused look on his face, standing in the doorway.

"Hey, Johnny," JC said. The other guys called greetings as well, and Lance stood up to facilitate introductions.

"Ladies, this is Johnny Wright, our manager and all-around great guy," he said, earning himself a winning smile from Johnny. "Johnny, this is Carrie Adams, an old friend of mine from Mississippi, and her friends Lindsey Abrams and Karyn Leeson. They're here on Spring Break and we've been showing them around."

"Nice to meet you, ladies," Johnny nodded, and the girls chorused their replies: "It's a pleasure," "You too."

"I actually have a bit of business, but it's nothing serious," the manager went on. "We have our tour photographer now, and she's going to be taking pictures of you for various projects as well, so I thought it'd be good for you to meet her while she's here." He paused, then, his gaze settling on Justin. "Something wrong, Justin?"

"Uh, no," the blond replied, face carefully set in innocence. "Nothing at all."

"Good. Abbey?" Johnny stepped aside, allowing a petite blonde woman to enter the control booth. She was dressed casually, in jeans and a button-down blue shirt, a large bag slung over one shoulder, and her hair was up in a half-ponytail so that part of it shimmered down her back. Her expression was pleasant and friendly as she glanced around at the guys.

"Hey," she said. "I'm Abbey Eldridge. We'll be setting up a photo shoot in a couple of days, so I'll get to know you then, all right?" Her smile crossed from each of the guys to the next, so quickly that she failed to notice the sudden spark of interest in Justin's eyes, a spark quickly dulled by the sheen of embarrassment.

Abbey nodded again, waved, and stepped out of the studio. Johnny raised an eyebrow, murmured something about getting back to work, and followed.

"Justin's got a crush!" Chris promptly crowed, having observed the look in his friend's eyes at his first sight of the photographer.

"Shut up!" Justin flung his soaked shirt at Chris; fortunately, before a serious tiff could start, the recording technicians returned from their break.

As the afternoon progressed, the girls were treated to samples of most of the songs from the album. Carrie didn't quite know what to make of the music, as it was different from that which she'd already heard courtesy of Karyn --though the songs still seemed to have the same pop feel, they were harder, more raw, with a dirtier and more urban sound. She definitely liked the last track they played: it was all _a cappella_ , the harmonies of the song sweet and pure as they conveyed a sense of sadness and loss. The song, Lance informed her, was called "I Thought She Knew", and as she listened to the lyrics, Carrie wondered if a deeper meaning could be construed.

> _She was my once in a lifetime  
>  Happy ending come true  
>  Oh I guess I should have told her  
>  I thought she knew_
> 
> _She said I took her for granted  
>  That's the last thing I would do  
>  Oh I'll never understand it  
>  I thought she knew_

Just as quickly, she decided against it. It was just in the way a song on the radio could seem to fit a momentary situation, simply by dint of the listener re-interpreting its lyrics.

Karyn's ecstasy at hearing the new music was undeniable: she danced around to the more upbeat songs, sat on the couch with chin propped on a hand to listen more intently to the ballads, and raved about each cut. The guys were a bit more discerning, though they'd been listening to the songs for a bit longer; they had a few things to clear up with each cut, but for the most part, they too seemed to be happy with the general sound of the songs. Karyn's thrilled endorsements seemed to provide a kind of stamp of approval, though, from the viewpoint of the serious fan.

Finally, the session was brought to an end with a last listen to the song that would be the first single, "Bye Bye Bye". As they sat or stood around, the music pounding from the booth's speakers, Carrie watched feet twitching and hands moving in sequences that no doubt had to do with the song's choreography. She had to admit that it was a catchy tune; she was sure, too, that it would be a hit, though she wasn't much for predicting such things.

"All right, we'll see you on Monday," JC called back to the engineer as they left the studio.

"Where to now?" Chris asked as he wrapped up his laptop and slid it into a carrying case.

"Food!" Justin declared, fists shooting up into the air; Lance ducked out of their lanky range at the last moment.

"I think you need to get some dry clothes first," Joey pointed out, chuckling.

"That too," Justin admitted without rancor.

"Hey, I have an idea," Chris said. "Why don't we do a cookout on the beach? We could build a fire and everything."

"Fire, fire," Joey started, doing a halfway decent imitation of Beavis.

"Shut up, buttmunch," JC absently replied, his voice a dead-on Butthead.

"What do you think?" Lance asked as he reached for Carrie's hand. A part of him warmed to the fact that she eagerly slipped her hand into his.

"Sounds neat," she replied. "I'm up for it if you guys are."

"Yeah, definitely!" Karyn said. "We can, like, make S'mores and stuff. But I want to change."

"Me too," Lindsey put in, winding an arm casually around Joey's waist.

"All right, why don't we split up and then meet at my place? We can hit the store for whatever we need." Everyone agreed to that. By now, they were out in the lobby, and through the tinted glass of the front doors, a few girls could still be seen.

"I think we can make it through without security," Justin said optimistically.

"Put your shirt back on," JC muttered. "We should get at least Mike, just to be safe. In case something happens."

While Justin dragged his damp shirt over his head, JC had the receptionist page one of the security guards. Armed with Mike's protection, they braved the outdoor world again. As before, the girls hurried through first, mostly unharassed by the bewildered fans. Following them, the group paused to sign autographs and pause for a few quick pictures to satisfy the patient young women.

There was a quick debate over the reshuffling of cars, since it now meant that all five guys would have to go back in JC's jeep. Lance finally solved the conundrum by hopping into the girls' rental car, since he didn't need to have them stop by a house to gather any items. The others teased Lance about getting all the action, but it seemed to be all in good spirits.

"So you think you can stand seeing our hotel room?" Lindsey asked him once they got on the road. "Trust me, it's a serious disaster area."

"I think I'll survive," he replied with a grin.

"Oh, I think we should blindfold him," Karyn said eagerly.

"You are way too into the idea of blindfolding lately," Carrie called from the driver's seat.

"Blindfold me?" Lance didn't sound too sure of that.

"It's just her thing right now," Lindsey explained, grinning. "I think someone should warn JC, though."

"What?"

"I wouldn't _do_ anything to him," Karyn pouted. "I mean, it's not like a fetish thing. I just like having that power over someone."

"TMI!" Carrie cried.

"Fine, fine." Karyn folded her arms and stuck out her lower lip.

"Yeah, I have to agree, that's way too much more information than I needed." Lance couldn't help but chuckle. He was enjoying the way they let down their guard, treating him like a regular friend, even if it did include a bit of oversharing.

Soon enough, they arrived at the hotel. Carrie was first inside the door, immediately swiping up articles of clothing from the floor to bury in a cabinet drawer. Laughing, the others followed, and while Lance took a seat in one of the chairs, the girls set about gathering clothes for the evening. Despite the seeming disorganization, they managed to get the necessities together quickly, and soon they were headed out towards Lance's house again.

As it turned out, they were the first back, so Karyn offered to hit the store for necessities. While they were making a list, Carrie called her parents. She'd spoken to her mother the day before to reassure them that she was both alive and well, but she wanted to catch up with her dad as well.

"Hey, honey," he greeted her as soon as she said 'hello'.

"Hi, dad. How are things going out there?"

In Evansville, Indiana, Travis Adams sat down at the kitchen table from which he had just risen, glancing at the remains of his dinner. "We're just finishing eating. How are you, sweetie?"

"I'm fine. I'm not feeling any pain or anything, so I think I'll be okay."

"Good, good. Now, your mom said something about you running into the Bass boy?"

Carrie couldn't keep from giggling. "Yeah, Karyn and Lindsey and I met up with him and a couple of his friends at DisneyWorld. It was actually his pool that I hit my head in."

"His pool? I don't remember his parents being that well off."

"Actually, it's his house. He's in a singing group, Dad. One of those boybands?"

"Oh, he sings." Travis's tone of voice as he delivered that statement told Carrie exactly how her father felt regarding Lance's profession.

"Yes, Dad, he sings. And he's going to college, he's got his own company and he's managing two other artists." Carrie delivered that news with a measure of stung pride.

"Oh, quite the entrepreneur you've got there. Well, I don't want to run up your phone bill, so I'll let you go. Call us when you get home, all right?"

"All right." Carrie pushed the off button on the receiver and slumped on the couch, sighing. "Gotta love my dad," she informed Lance, who was watching her with raised eyebrows.

"I do remember him as being a little... um..."

"Hard-headed?" Carrie chuckled. "Well, he doesn't think singing is such a great career choice, but it's not going to harm anyone for him to think it."

"Good." Lance glanced around, scanning for Lindsey -- she was in the kitchen, putting together a basket of food for the picnic -- and then got up to sit next to Carrie on the couch. "I mean, it's not like I'm that upset with his feelings, but, you know, I'd hate to not have his respect."

Leaning back just a little, Carrie tucked one leg under her. "Oh? And why is that?"

"Well, I mean, if there's this thing between us, and, you know, we kept in touch and stuff..." He was pushing his index fingers against her knee, one after the other, in a rapidfire staccato of poking that betrayed his nervousness. Carrie did her best to keep from giggling at him.

"I think I get what you're getting at," she said. "Although it's not like we could--"

The sound of the door swinging open cut Carrie off from her increasingly nervewracked sentence, and she was relieved to have the interruption of the other guys' arrival to prevent her from continuing. She didn't want to think about anything after Saturday.

"We have food!" Justin sang out as he came into the house, the others dogging his heels. Karyn was right behind him, a bag of groceries in one arm, while she scolded Justin about manhandling the hamburger buns. Hurriedly, Carrie jumped up to help with the final preparations for the sojourn, not noticing Lance's confused look following her into the kitchen.

* * *

The beach chosen for the party was one apparently well-known to the guys, who hopped out of the cars and jogged down the walkway to the sand almost as soon as they'd found parking spaces. Apparently they were checking to make sure the area was empty, for Carrie, getting out of the rental car, could hear Lance's mellow voice raised in reply to one of the others' - Joey, she thought, from the brighter tones. Justin and JC came back up to help unload the cars, packed with a cooler full of ice and sodas, bags of food, towels and blankets, and suchlike.

As Carrie descended the low set of concrete steps to the sand, she had to admit that the chosen location was perfectly lovely. Roughly horseshoe-shaped, the little beach scooped out, sloping, to meet the waves. Large mounds of weathered boulders, stepped and worn, with easy walkways gouged into them by hundreds of thousands of feet, bounded the area on either side. Joey and Chris were already working on dragging driftwood from one of the side 'walls' out to a position in approximately the center of the horseshoe, while Lance broke up smaller pieces of wood for kindling.

Reddish-orange hues had begun to spread wide bands across the sky by the time they got the fire going, and Carrie had already put on her windbreaker for protection against the winds blowing in from the cooling sea. Karyn and JC had spread out the blankets in a circle around the bonfire, and while Justin had devoured about half a bag of Doritos during the setup, he was all too willing to start in on the hot dogs they'd brought. No one was feeling brave enough to impale a wiener on a raw stick, at least until Chris started gnawing on a piece of driftwood just to hear the girls give horrified, thrilled gasps.

After that, roasting the hot dogs seemed positively anti-climactic. Carrie noticed Joey making some gesture with his, and smirked when Lindsey gave him a shove on the shoulder; she was keeping him in line just fine. For her part, Carrie was quite enjoying herself in the moment. She was leaning back against Lance, her roasting stick propped up on one knee, and his chest was warm and comfortable behind her.

"So what do you want to do tomorrow?" Karyn said, bringing Carrie out of her reverie. The brunette glanced over at her friend, shrugging.

"Don't know." She didn't really want to think about it, either.

"We could go shopping," Karyn persisted, ignoring Carrie's indifferent look. "I really want to hit a souvenir shop and get something tacky."

"Oh, I know a great place that has some really horrible stuff," Chris said. "You want tacky and cheap, they have it."

"So that's where you got your braids," Justin smirked. Chris stuck out his lower lip and pouted.

"Mommmmmmy, he's not being very nice to me."

"Hush, boys." Carrie's tone was drowsy, but firm. "Don't make me turn this beach around."

As if on cue, Justin started poking Chris in the side. "Make him stop! He's pokin' me!" Chris wailed.

"Poke him back," Joey advised. Lance snorted.

"I don't _even_ want to think about what that sounded like," he commented, sending Carrie into gales of giggles.

By now, the poking had degenerated into playful wrestling. Suddenly, Chris got up and started running, something in his hand. Justin took off after him like a shot, spraying sand in his wake.

"What's that about?" Karyn wondered.

"I think he's got Justin's fisherman's cap," JC replied, leaning over to see. With the sky advancing deeper into the blues of night, it was more difficult to tell exactly what was going on. The pair splashed through the shallow waves brushing the shore, Chris calling hysterically in a bizarre played-up accent, all the while accompanied by the laughter of the rest of the group.

"Justin's finally getting some back on Chris," Joey observed. Soon enough, the pair trudged back up to the fire, collapsing back into their prior positions. Chris was sporting a severely scuffed hairdo, and Justin had reclaimed his cap.

"Are you okay?" Lance murmured to Carrie, who was still propped up against him. She'd finished cooking her hot dog and tucked into it quietly, but she seemed a bit too quiet. She shook her head, murmuring "I'm fine" around her mouthful, and went back to eating.

Justin groaned when he saw that he'd dropped his hot dogs into the sand. "My dogs!"

"There's always more Doritos, Justin," Lance called sagely. The blond's expression lit up at that, and he rummaged through the food to find the chips.

Full night settled, shrugging down over them, as Lindsey and Joey passed around the ingredients for s'mores. Though Carrie had seemed excited about the treat earlier, she shook her head when Lance offered her the packages of graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate bars. When he shrugged and started assembling a couple for himself, she gave a small sigh and got up, trudging down towards the water with her arms wrapped around herself.

"That's not good," JC murmured, eyes tracking her.

Karyn started to get up, saying something about talking to her, but Lance put down his graham crackers and stood up instead, wiping crumbs off on his shirt. "I'll go talk to her."

Passing Karyn and JC, he watched her lean her head, fire sparkling in the highlights of her hair, on his shoulder. They really were cute together, her curled like a kitten to him. Equally paired, Joey and Lindsey were: his head laid in her lap now, and she was stroking his reddened hair with one hand while she looked down the beach towards Carrie's dark silhouette.

Lance gave a short sigh as he trotted down to the water. His feelings were undoubtedly as mixed up as Carrie's; he hoped that she'd talk about them now, instead of letting her anxiety get the best of her again.

She'd found a perch on an outcropping of rock, its surface sanded smooth and mostly flat, and in her hands she held a small pile of pebbles, which she was halfheartedly pitching out at the water.

"Hey," he said softly.

"Hi." She tossed another rock into the ocean. It sank on its first splash.

Lance gestured at the outcropping. "This seat taken?"

"Free country," Carrie replied softly. _Whizz_ went another pebble. This one skipped a couple of times before sinking.

Lance took a seat, drawing one leg up underneath him so that he could partially face her. Even though she didn't seem interested in looking at him, he wanted to try and hold her attention regardless.

"I know you're upset about leaving," he began.

"How perceptive," she said, dryly. The next pebble went overhand, arcing high to disappear in the darkness.

"Carrie, we have to talk about this. I don't want to leave things the way they are, and I don't think you want to either. I'm really enjoying this time we're spending together, being with you, and it's not like I want it to end..."

"Well, neither do I, but I have to get on that plane on Sunday whether I like it or not." Her tone was low, angry, but he couldn't tell whether it was at him or someone else. "And thinking about that just keeps sucking the fun out of whatever we're doing. I can't even enjoy tonight, because all I know is that I'm going to be gone on Sunday, and I don't know if I'll ever get to see you again, and..." Her voice choked, sharp; Lance reached for her, but she jerked away from him and went back to throwing stones.

"Look, it's not going to be that way. I couldn't stand it if I never saw you again. There's no reason we can't make this work, if we really want to."

Her shoulders were shaking now. "But see, I don't even know what this is. A nice spring fling? A friendship? A real relationship? I keep turning it over in my head, and I just don't have any answers. It just sounds so corny when I think, hey, we'll keep in touch, we can do some sort of long distance thing."

"Carrie." Lance took a firm hold of her upper arm this time, not letting her break away from him. She turned shimmering eyes to him; he felt his heart wrench at the sight. "Carrie, I don't know if I have a name for the way I feel about you, but I do know that in the short time we've been hanging out again, I learned how much I missed you... I missed my best friend. And not just that, but there's this wonderful girl that I want to learn all about, and there's no way I'm going to just let her go again."

"Like last time?" She sniffed, setting down the pebbles and digging in her pocket for a tissue. Lance moved closer to her, rubbing her back gently while she stared at the sand.

"Once upon a time," he said softly, "there was a little boy who had everything in the world that little boys could want. He had a bike, and a baseball bat and a glove, and he had model cars and action figures. But the best thing of all that he had was his best friend. He didn't care that his best friend was a girl, and as far as he knew, she didn't care that her best friend was a boy. They used to run around every day after school, and every day during the summer, except when he got sick with the measles and he whined every day he was inside because he couldn't go out and play with her.

"And they were friends as they grew up. And the boy started getting to the age where all his other friends, the guy friends, thought that girls were icky and were to be avoided at all costs. But he didn't want to stop playing with his best friend, even though she was starting to change from a scrawny brat into a pretty young lady. They played even when she had to wear dresses on Sundays, even when she jumped out of trees and he cut her head open. By accident."

He heard a muffled chuckle and smiled a bit.

"Then one terrible, awful day, the boy found out that his best friend was moving away. He was so mad, he threw things around in his backyard and yelled at his best friend, because he couldn't stand the thought of her never being around anymore. They had a fight. And later on he wanted to apologize, but he couldn't seem to say anything to her because he felt so awkward around her. So when she left, he stood in his bedroom window and watched her station wagon pull out of her driveway for the last time ever, and he hated himself for not even saying goodbye when he had the chance."

Lance fell silent after that, a warmth spreading through him. Carrie had ceased sniffling and was leaning against him, her head tucked close to his heart. He almost wanted to stop breathing, though he was sure that would spoil the moment.

"So what happened to the little boy?" she asked, her voice muffled and scratchy.

"Well, as fate would have it, he grew up and got into this singing group. You might have heard of them. And one day he and his friends went to DisneyWorld and the girl was there. The boy had long ago made a promise to himself that if he ever found his best friend again, he'd never let her go. So now he's going to keep his promise."

Carrie moved softly against him, slipping an arm around his waist. "Do you think it'll work this time?"

"I'll make it work." Lance leaned his head on hers. "I know long-distance relationships are hard, but we can make it work if we both try."

"A relationship? Is this your way of asking me to be your girlfriend?" She pulled back a little to look up at him.

"Yeah," he nodded. "It is."

Carrie's smile was hesitant and small, but a lovely thing to behold all the same. Lance let his fingers brush through her hair, smoothing the tangled strands, and when she closed her eyes to enjoy the sensation, he resisted temptation no longer.

The kiss was long and slow, sweet and thorough. When it was over, Carrie found herself much closer to Lance than she had been before, both her arms around his neck with the fingers of one hand playing in the short hairs at his nape; but she didn't mind in the least. She'd dreamt of something like this once, but her child's fantasies were nothing compared to the reality of having him, solid and sure, in her arms. One of his big hands cupped her cheek, the other one splayed against the small of her back. She liked that, too, the way he held her.

"Okay," she smiled.

"Okay?" he asked.

"Okay, I'll be your girlfriend," she chuckled. "Forgot the question already, huh?"

"You do that to me." He kissed her again, the impulse easier to give into each time. The little sounds she made stirred something deep inside him, and the way she sighed after the kiss -- as if she were so completely happy that this was the only sound she could make -- made him feel like floating.

"Hey, you know," he said a little while later, "I had an idea."

"Oh?" Her eyebrows went up. "Speak on. I'm impressed."

"If you're through with the sarcasm, I will," he replied, his tone teasing. "Anyway, it occurred to me that this doesn't have to be a long-distance relationship. You could always transfer to a college down here. There's a lot of good schools with computer and English programs. I'm sure you could get the credits transferred and everything."

Her hesitation spoke volumes. "Believe me, the thought's crossed my mind," she said. "But even though it's a good idea, I just can't jump into a decision like that. For one thing, I'd have to convince my parents, since they are kind of the ones funding my education. I'd have to have a better reason than 'because Lance is there', and I'd have to find a school, transfer my credits..." She trailed off, looking up at Lance; her eyes were dark, unhappy. "And then what if I do come down here and it turns out we don't work out?"

"Yeah, you're right," he admitted. Obviously she'd thought about it quite a bit already, to be listing off so many potential problems. "But it's something to think about, maybe?"

"Something to think about, yeah," she said, squeezing him affectionately. "Definitely."

By then it was getting late, and Joey came jogging down to inform them that everyone else was wanting to leave. Reassured that Carrie was fine and that issues had been dealt with, he headed back up, Lance and Carrie trailing him with their hands firmly held in each others' grasp.

* * *

Carrie was still feeling unsure of the future, but she was quite a bit more relieved now that she knew how Lance felt about her. Now the only thing she was upset about was that she wouldn't be seeing him again until later that evening.

The guys had a long rehearsal session on Saturday, and since they'd been shirking their duties a bit over the week, the session was set to run all day. Carrie's disappointment was echoed by that of her friends, but Lance promised they'd come up with something special to commemorate their final night together in Orlando, so they had to be content with that.

Karyn wanted to go shopping, so shopping it was. They started at a mall recommended by Justin, but most of the shops were similar to those in Indiana, and they were looking for variety. An expedition to a boardwalk crowded with tourist traps ensued. Booths of t-shirts alternated with horribly tacky knick-knacks and souvenirs. Carrie exclaimed in horror at one piece, a small beach scene of a frog sunning under a palm tree, all made of shells and painted in garishly bright colors. The legend "Frog in Paradise" adorned the beach on which the frog lay.

"This stuff is terrible!" she said, shaking her head as she put it back down.

"Yeah, that's what makes it so great!"

Carrie giggled at Lindsey over a rack of t-shirts of the "My parents went to Florida and all they brought me was this lousy t-shirt" variety. "She just wants to spend her money," Lindsey commented, loud enough for Karyn to hear.

"So what if I do? I want something I can remember this vacation by."

"And JC isn't enough of a souvenir." Carrie smirked at the glare Karyn sent her.

"Oh, ha, this from the future Mrs. Lance Bass."

"Geez, Karyn, you're really touchy today," Lindsey observed. Karyn spun around again, going back to the bright flower-print shirts she'd been going through.

"Bite me," they heard her say, which drew a rheumy glance from the little old lady sitting behind the counter. Carrie gave Lindsey a worried look and then went around the central display to where Karyn was standing.

The redhead's hands held onto two shirts, not moving except to shake a little. Carrie reached over, grasping one of her friend's hands gently. "Karyn?"

Karyn looked over at her, wiping at her cheeks with the back of her free hand. "I'm sorry," she said softly. "I just keep thinking about how I don't know when I'm going to see him again. I mean, we talked about it and everything, and he really likes me too, and... Jesus, Carrie, I just met the guy three days ago and I feel like I'm falling in love with him."

Wordlessly, Carrie pulled Karyn into a fierce hug, letting her friend soak her shirt's shoulder with her tears. "It's okay," the brunette whispered. "I know how you feel. It'll be okay."

"How do you deal with it?" Karyn asked in a choked voice. "You keep everything bottled up, but I know you've gotta be hurting too."

Carrie pulled back a little to look at Karyn, whose emotions were always plainly spelled out on her face. She couldn't help but feel pure empathy for Karyn; she'd been going through the same struggle, the only difference being that she'd internalized hers.

"I really don't know, hon," she said. "It's not like this is exactly easy for me, either. I feel like I just found Lance, discovered what a wonderful person he is on top of the guy who used to be my best friend, and before I can even enjoy it at all I have to go and leave him again. All I can think is that I'm going to hang on, keep in touch, and see him as soon as the tour comes near us."

Karyn sniffed hard, prompting Carrie to dig a wadded-up tissue out of her pocket and offer it. Once Karyn had blown her nose and wiped her eyes, she gave Carrie a watery smile.

"I guess that's all we can do for now," she said in a soft, disappointed tone. "Can you believe I'm actually thinking about looking at schools down here now?"

"You've got it bad, girl," Carrie teased.

"Don't tell me you haven't thought about it."

"Thought about what?" Lindsey asked, having drifted over to them once she noticed the tension of the conversation easing.

"Going to school down here. You can't tell me you're looking forward to tomorrow," Karyn said, her eyes warm even though they were bloodshot.

"Well, no," Lindsey readily admitted. "I'm really enjoying hanging around with Joey. But moving... I don't know."

"Yeah, it's a lot to think about all at once," Carrie said. "But nothing's saying anyone has to make a decision right away."

"Except about a shirt," Karyn put in, brusquely turning back to her selection. "Come on, what do you think -- the yellow flower print, or the blue one?"

* * *

Once the shopping was done -- and they were careful to make sure Karyn didn't load them down with too many bags of junk, since they'd have to carry it all back on the plane -- they dropped them back at the hotel, then went out to the hotel's swimming pool to take in a little more Florida sun. Carrie tried to relax, but she found herself feeling a slight chill in spite of the warmth of the day whenever she thought that tonight would be her last night with Lance.

Before the afternoon had grown too long, Karyn alerted them that it was time to change and get ready. They'd heard from Joey earlier; he'd informed them only that something special was indeed being planned, and that they were to dress nicely, but casually. Karyn made a caustic joke that it was probably just as well, since they hadn't exactly planned on formal dinners with 'N Sync as part of their spring break. Her comments had been getting a little more sharp-edged throughout the day, but Lindsey and Carrie knew the reason behind them and took them with a grain of salt.

"Oh, guys, this isn't looking good." Lindsey, already dressed and ready to go, was lounging by the window, and her comment drew Karyn over. The skies had begun to cloud up, though the afternoon still seemed bright enough.

"It figures," Karyn muttered. "At least it waited until our last day."

"What's going on?" Carrie called from the bathroom, where she was touching on a light bit of makeup.

"It looks like it's starting to get overcast," Karyn called.

"Oh, great. Well, let's hope our activities for the evening are all indoors."

The skies opened up halfway through the drive over. Carrie was internally grateful now that she'd ignored Karyn's earlier requests to rent a convertible; when they got to Lance's, they parked in front of the garage and ran up to the house as quickly as possible.

Knocking on the door provided no response. Hunched under the small roof extending over the front porch, Carrie gave Lindsey and Karyn a worried glance, then tried the knocker again; but still no one answered.

"This is weird," Karyn said. "Do you think they had to run out for something?"

"Not in this weather."

"Well, they could have left before it started," Lindsey pointed out.

"They knew we were coming over, though," Carrie said, chewing on her lip.

With a sigh, Karyn tried the door. To her surprise, it was open, and she gave her friends a worried look.

"Maybe something... happened," she suggested, her voice instinctively lowered.

"I don't want to think about it. Guys?" Carrie pushed the door open a little to see the darkened hallway beyond, dim from lack of illumination either natural or artificial.

With her leading, the three slipped into the house, Lindsey closing the door behind them. Their progress was slow; Karyn held onto Carrie's hand, and neither of them was sure if it was the other one shaking. Every few steps, they called for the guys, either separately or as a whole. Even the usually unflappable Lindsey was starting to get a little freaked out as they made their way down the hall, past the dining room and into the living room.

More light shone in through the French doors that opened onto the patio, though even that light was dim and watery due to the storm outside. Karyn clutched at Lindsey's hand, gasping when a flash of lightning flickered outside, followed by an ear-shattering clap of thunder.

"This is so not cool. What if something happened to them?"

"I'm sure they're fine, we'll just wait here until they get back," Carrie said. "Come on, sit on the couch, we'll watch some TV or something."

As they sat, Carrie scooped up the remote and hit the power button. There was no response from the grey television screen. Frowning, she pushed the button again. Still nothing.

"The power's out," Karyn said, voice quavering.

"No, I'm sure it's just the batteries or something."

As if from out of nowhere, a large body came barreling down the stairs, yelling in a horrific tone at the top of its lungs. It must have been a cue of some kind, because moments later the house was filled with roars and shrieks, several sets of feet running in towards the familyroom in tandem. Caught by surprise, the girls let out screams of their own.

The screams turned into laughter, however, when one of the 'attackers' caught his leg on a coffee table and started hopping about, clutching his shin where it had been barked.

"You guys are idiots!" Karyn cursed JC as he fell over onto her lap, laughing so hard that his face was red.

"That was not funny," Carrie glowered. Lance gave her a sheepish smile, escorting Joey -- who had been the one to hurt his leg -- over to a chair.

"Sorry, they talked me into it," Lance replied.

"Oh, we did not! It was his idea!" Chris said hotly, grinning.

Lindsey folded her arms and gave Chris her patented Stare of Death. Chris squirmed uncomfortably under the glare.

"All right, so maybe it was our idea, a little." He looked up at Justin, who was just clutching his stomach and laughing.

"I'm beginning to think we should have just stayed at the hotel tonight," Carrie muttered.

"Oh, we were just trying to have some fun," Joey muttered, while Justin went around the room and turned on lights.

"What about the TV?" Carrie asked, holding out the remote.

Lance produced the batteries from his pocket and re-installed them. "We didn't want you to actually turn it on, or you would have known the power wasn't out."

"Oh, so now it's 'we', huh?" Carrie pretended to pout. Lance sat down on the couch next to her, as Lindsey had gotten up to go over by Joey, the better to check on his leg -- only mildly bruised, fortunately.

"I'm sorry. We thought it would be fun." He stuck out his lower lip endearingly, and Carrie couldn't resist reaching over and tugging on it a little.

"Oh, all right. I forgive you."

"I don't!" Karyn called out. JC promptly put his shoulder to her waist and lifted her up in a fireman's carry, holding her like that while she squealed.

"JC! Quit it! All the blood's rushing to my head!"

"She'll never forgive you now, man," Chris laughed.

"So what's the plan for tonight?" Carrie asked, blithely ignoring the pandemonium.

"Well, we had a little park rented, actually. It's a big place for locals to hang out, there's putt-putt, go-carts, laser tag, wall climbing, an arcade and all kinds of stuff like that. But since it's raining..."

"Actually, it's stopped," Justin called. He'd just emerged from the kitchen with a can of pop, and paused to look out the back doors. As if reinforcing his words, the thunder sounded again -- much more distantly this time, an annoyed grumble instead of an angry shout.

"Well, we could still go," Lindsey suggested. Karyn's shrieking giggles drowned her out, and she gave JC an aggrieved sigh. "Will you put her down already? She's redder than her hair."

"Oh, all right." JC flopped Karyn down on the floor, gently, then got up and took her place on the couch. He didn't even seem to notice when she jumped into his lap.

"Anyway, since it's stopped, I don't see why we don't go. And even if it does start raining again, it's not like it's really going to do us that much harm. Might even be fun."

"Mini golf in the rain. I like the way you think, lady," Justin grinned at Lindsey. The blonde rolled her eyes at him.

"Don't get any ideas, Timberlake."

* * *

The clouds continued to recede, revealing more bright, late-afternoon sky as they drove over to the park. JC explained that they'd enjoyed coming here often before the group had broken in America, but since then, it was impossible to go almost anywhere public without being mobbed -- and even then they usually had to have several bodyguards with them. Fortunately, this park did private rentals for parties and such, so they were able to secure it on short notice.

"Plus," he added as they pulled into the parking lot, "we're not going to have a lot of time later on to do fun stuff like this, so we wanted to enjoy it while we could."

"Oh, so we're a convenient excuse, hm?" Carrie grinned at him, negotiating her way through the parking lot.

He pretended to consider that until Karyn smacked him.

Once the group had reassembled inside the entrance of the park, JC asked what everyone wanted to do first. He had to say it a couple of times, loudly, since Chris and Justin were involved in an argument that had begun on the way over -- something to do with a favorite brand of shoes.

"Mini golf!" Lance bellowed, surprising everyone with the volume. As heads swiveled to look at him, he shrugged, grinning good-naturedly.

"I didn't feel like arguing," he said, and slung an arm over JC's shoulders, his other hand in Carrie's so that he could lead the way over to the booth to get equipment. The others followed, straggling, Chris and Justin continuing the argument in loud and obnoxious tones of voice.

As it turned out, golfing first was the best choice. The skies started to cloud over again during the second nine holes; as they were finishing their skill putts at the eighteenth, trying to get a hole in one to earn a free game, large, warm raindrops began splattering down over them again.

Chris was the last, having mucked about so long that he'd been the last to putt every round; he was thoroughly soaked by the time he joined the others where they huddled under the awning which overhung the equipment booth.

"Did you get it?" Justin asked, hopefully; he'd been the only one to score a hole-in-one. For answer, Chris scuffed his foot on the pavement and pouted.

"Yes!" Justin promptly began dancing around with his fists in the air, which lasted about five seconds; after that, Joey tackled him around the midsection and flung him up into the air.

"While the children wrestle," Carrie rolled her eyes before continuing, "what does everyone else want to do?"

"Laser tag," JC suggested.

"I'm for that," Lance nodded.

"I don't know, I want to check out the arcade," Karyn said.

"Why don't we split up? There's really too many of us for the laser tag. The place is just too small," Chris put in.

The afternoon ended up going like that, a feeling of winding down beginning to permeate the group. Carrie had great fun watching Joey and Chris face off on a video game that was played by dancing -- stepping on certain pads set in a cross pattern as they were indicated on the screen, set in rhythm to an infectious beat -- that was as much fun to watch as, it seemed, to play. After Joey gave up, Chris tried to get her to play, but she found herself stepping on the wrong pads every time, and eventually gave up by complaining that she was just a rhythmless white girl.

Still, she thought as she wandered through the arcade, there was a certain solemnity to the proceedings; it felt almost as if the guys were starting to force the good humor. She passed Karyn, mono-focused on Tetris, next to JC at Area 51. Outside, Justin and Chris were chasing Lindsey around in the rain, a game that finally ended when an out-of-breath Lindsey pelted into the arcade.

Disconsolate, Carrie got a can of soda from a machine and sat down in the small eating area, watching the lights flash on the game machines. Even that brightness felt artificial and wrong to her, as if they were advertising for players who would never arrive. Lost in thought, she didn't notice Lance sit down next to her until he tugged on a lock of her hair.

"Hi," he said.

"Hey," she murmured, not quite feeling up to unfolding her arms from where they were crossed beneath her chin.

"You look down," he observed, letting his hand rub her back gently.

"Sorry," she said. "I just... can't help it, I guess. I'm not really depressed, I mean... just kind of..."

"You feel like it's coming to an end," he supplied.

"Yeah, exactly." She rested her chin on her hands again, sitting up a bit to do so. Lindsey wandered over to sit by them, Joey trailing her like a satellite. Soon, Chris followed, and before long Justin and JC had joined them as well. JC was strutting, having ranked up a higher score at the dancing game than Justin.

"I'm pooped," Justin declared, draping himself dramatically across the table. "Can we go home now?"

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Carrie replied, with an amiable chuckle. "It's starting to get late anyway."

* * *

The ride back was subdued, despite Justin -- who had decided to stuff himself into the car with Carrie, Lance, and Chris -- bouncing in the back seat, boisterously singing along to every song on the radio. Carrie's lack of energy limited her to giggling at his antics, rather than laughing out loud as she might have earlier in the week.

Chris's insults regarding Justin's behavior seemed half-hearted as well; Carrie felt a certain sense of relief when they finally pulled into Justin's driveway to let the young singer out. They repeated the process at Chris's house, and as soon as that was accomplished, the car fell silent.

Carrie felt fidgety and awkward on the drive back; she twirled the radio dial, not finding any songs suitable to her liking, finally turning it down with some relief when Lance's cellphone rang. His side of the conversation was short, to the point; Carrie gathered that it was JC, but didn't get much more than that. She waited until he had disconnected the call before giving him a curious glance.

"That was JC," he said, confirming her suspicion. "He said Karyn's really tired, so he's just going to take her back to the hotel. Joey and Lindsey are going to go out and do something."

"Ah," she nodded. They were stopped at a red light; with the rain pummeling the car, it felt close and small inside, and a little clammy even with the air conditioning on. "I guess I won't be seeing the guys again tonight, then."

"Yeah, but we'll all be there to say goodbye to you tomorrow," Lance said.

"Oh, I'm not sure that's a good idea." The light turned red; Carrie tore her eyes off Lance, his face dark in the deepening gloom, and started the car forward again. "I mean, there'll probably be a fuss, you know..."

"No, we want to. We talked about it already." His voice was firm, as if he'd brook no argument. Carrie sighed a little.

"Maybe I should drop you off and go back to the hotel too," she said softly.

"Is that what you want to do?" he asked.

She drove for a while in silence, not really seeing the road ahead of her. She hadn't really thought about tonight; every time she'd put her mind to it, her thoughts had slid away from the topic to a more enjoyable one. One thing she was sure of: if this was the last time she was going to see Lance, she didn't want it cut short.

"Not really," she said, finally, and glanced over at Lance again. Though darkness had stolen almost all the light now, she was able to make out a faint smile on his face, and her heart soared.

* * *

Lance decided to start a fire when they got back to his house, since it had become chilly with the continuing rain. While he did that, Carrie put together some hot chocolate in the kitchen, topping the mugs off with whipped cream. As she headed back through the living room towards the den, tray in hand, she found herself drawn to the French doors.

Rain sluiced down just outside, held away from the windows by the sloped roof over part of the patio. Lightning flashed distantly, answered lazily by thunder a few seconds later; it was as if the rain had settled in for the night, grumbling to itself as it found a more comfortable place to rest. The sound of it, pattering and constant, touched something in Carrie's soul, soothing her anxieties and easing worries she hadn't even known she had.

Lance's soft greeting brought her out of her reverie; fortunately, she had a good grip on the tray and wasn't startled by him.

"I've got the fire going," he said, taking the tray from her.

"Sounds positively divine." She followed him into the den, where she saw that Lance had moved one of the couches back a bit to take more advantage of the fire's warmth. A down comforter covered its back, creating a cozy, warm picture. "Mm, very nice."

"Thanks. I thought we could watch a video or something."

He set the tray down on an end table, going over to a cabinet of videotapes to pick something out. They agreed quickly enough -- both being in a romantic mood and wanting to keep things light, Aladdin was the video of choice --and once it was started, Lance settled down on the couch with Carrie, easily resting an arm around her shoulders. She cuddled into him, kicking off her shoes and tucking the comforter over their legs before reaching for a mug.

Soon, the only sounds in the room were those of the movie and the fire, intertwined with the occasional sip of hot chocolate and a murmur of contentment as the pair shifted into deeper comfort. Soothed into full relaxation by the familiar movie, the easy closeness of Lance, and the pleasant feeling of a belly full of chocolate, Carrie found herself fighting drooping eyelids before the movie was halfway done.

"Lance?" she mumbled, partially into his shirt.

"Hmm?" He sounded half-asleep himself.

"I'm falling asleep here."

"Go ahead." His voice was gentle, deep, lazy; Carrie felt a sudden surge of tenderness, safety in the knowledge that she could let herself fall and that it would be all right, she wouldn't be hurt. She pressed her cheek to him, feeling his heartbeat beneath her ear. This was good, and she was happy; that was all that mattered to her now.

Lance wasn't quite as asleep as he'd made himself out to be, but he couldn't quite bring himself to feel regret over deceiving Carrie. She had curled to him like a kitten, sleepy and sweet, her exhausted abandon charming in its innocence. He rubbed one hand lightly over her back, enjoying the tiny sighs she exhaled as his hand reached the central point between her shoulderblades.

In so many ways, she hadn't changed from the girl he'd known; she still had a girlish face that so strongly resembled her youthful appearance, it amazed him that he hadn't recognized her immediately. Her eyes were still dark, wide and expressive; her hair had darkened somewhat over the intervening years, but not enough to be deeply startling. She had definitely deepened as a person, though, and that was what fascinated him the most. She was quiet, more so than she'd been as a child, but she hadn't lost her ability to easily make friends, nor had she lost that quality of feeling like an old friend at a first meeting. The others had commented on that to him.

She wasn't shy or retiring, though; she approached a situation more indirectly, preferring to evaluate things before seeing what reaction might be most appropriate. Remembering how she used to blurt things out without thinking, he decided that she'd gained a large measure of tact over the years, and wondered how hard the lessons had been to learn. There was something cool in her, too, he sensed; a calm reserve that would hold her steady in stormy situations.

No doubt, he liked this girl in his arms. No, more than that; he thought there was a good possibility that he loved her. Though he generally hesitated to use that word so early in a relationship -- not that he had a whole lot of experience, but still -- this didn't feel like a new relationship, either. This was something old, warm and rooted in deep friendship. As his eyelids started to droop, he gave a silent prayer that they could continue this; could allow it the chance to flourish in new and wonderful ways.

* * *

"Where IS she?"

Lindsey paused in the middle of folding up some dirty clothes to toss Karyn an annoyed glance. The redhead had woken up frantic, and her mood hadn't improved while the two attempted to re-pack their belongings for the flight home.

"I'm sure she's fine," Lindsey said. "She went back to Lance's, and she knows when the flight is, so just stop stressing and finish packing."

"Oh, Linds, I'm gonna freak out," Karyn promised. "I am. I mean it."

"Then pack while you freak out." Lindsey tossed Karyn's pajamas at her.

Just then, the door opened. Both looked up, a sigh of Carrie's name escaping Karyn's lips as the very person in question stepped into the hotel room. Carrie's eyes were dark, and she was -- not surprisingly -- wearing the same clothes that they'd seen her in last night.

"There you are!" Karyn rushed over and hugged Carrie, who blinked bemusedly and hugged Karyn back. "We were so worried."

"I was at Lance's," Carrie replied, tossing a confused glance at Lindsey. "I'm sorry I didn't call, but..."

"Oh, I get it." Lindsey winked broadly and went back to packing.

"No, we just watched a video and fell asleep. I just didn't want to leave." Carrie set her purse down and went over to the corner where she'd stashed her suitcase. "Lance said they'd meet us at the airport... I think we have time for breakfast before the flight."

Lindsey was humming idly as she zipped up her suitcase, and Karyn reluctantly went back to packing as well, now that she didn't have anything to be flustered about. "So nothing happened, hm?" she asked, one eye on Carrie.

"No, not really," Carrie said, softly sighing. "It was just... I mean, it was nice. It was comfortable." She gazed off for a few moments, losing herself in the memory of the warmth of Lance's embrace; then, sighing, went back to packing. "What about you guys? Did I miss anything exciting?"

"Well, Joey and Lindsey got in really late," Karyn reported, her tone subdued. "JC and I hung out here for a while. Watched some TV and talked a lot."

"And made out," Lindsey put in, grinning. "I walked in on them."

"Did not," Karyn grumped, pretending to pout.

"Sounds like you guys had way more fun than I did," Carrie chuckled. "What about you and Joey, Linds?"

"We went and saw a late showing of _Gone in 60 Seconds_ at this little local theater. It was very cool," Lindsey said. "Really enjoyable."

All too soon, it seemed, they were packed and ready to go. They checked out of the hotel, hauled their bags to the rental car, and then stopped at a Denny's for a quick, subdued breakfast. The chatty mood had given way to melancholy; Carrie was off in her own world during the meal, and she could tell the others were as well.

Despite the gloominess of their moods, the day was bright and sunny, as if defying their bad humor. They headed to the airport, checked in the car and their luggage, and found their terminal. As they found seats among the featureless rows of vinyl-molded chairs, Carrie realized that she was scrutinizing everyone else already seated, hoping that the guys were already there.

"Stop it," Karyn hissed, tugging on the sleeve of Carrie's t-shirt. "They're not here."

"Well, they did say they'd come to say goodbye," Carrie muttered defensively. She chose to refrain from pointing out that Karyn had been doing some looking around of her own, and reached for a book from her purse instead.

A few minutes later, Karyn and Lindsey went off to get caffeinated drinks of various sorts from the food vendors, leaving Carrie alone to guard their bags. She didn't mind, though she kept a nervous eye on her watch as she waited. Their departure would undoubtedly be announced in a few minutes; the plane was scheduled to leave in approximately twenty.

"Is this seat taken?" The low voice surprised her; Carrie looked up, feeling the air go out of her in a rush when she saw Lance, holding a pair of sunglasses up to reveal his sparkling eyes. With a muted, wordless murmur of happiness, she dropped the book and leapt up into his arms.

She didn't want to let go of him, not when his arms felt so right around her back; but, reluctantly she did, acknowledging with an embarrassed smile the others. They were all dressed as incognito as possible, with baseball caps (or, in JC's case, a cowboy hat he'd appropriated from heavens-only-knew where), sunglasses, scruffy jackets and undistinguished clothes. Less obvious, behind them stood a pair of bodyguards -- Carrie recognized Mike and Ted, from the studio -- although they, too, were dressed casually, to fit in with the crowd.

"Oh, I'm so glad you came," Carrie said, giving up any hope of fighting the tears already rushing to her eyes. She hugged them all in turn, and barely had she released JC when Karyn came running up and threw herself into the dark-haired singer's arms. Right on her heels was Lindsey, grimacing at her double load of hot beverages; she was quick to hand them off to Carrie and find her way into Joey's embrace.

"I told you we'd come," Lance murmured, reaching for Carrie's hands again. She looked down between them, curiously reluctant to look into his eyes.

"I believed you," she said.

"I'll call, I promise. Every day."

"You don't have to do that."

"I want to."

She couldn't think of anything to say to that, so she just leaned into him, pressing her cheek to his shoulder.

"Promise me you'll let me know when you're anywhere near Bloomington. We will come out and see you."

"You know I will."

Carrie turned her head a little, letting her gaze pass over Karyn and Lindsey. The pair were busily exchanging hugs with the rest of 'N Sync, and she could already see the tears running down Karyn's face. Lindsey, ever stoic, nonetheless seemed genuinely moved and even a bit upset. Carrie squeezed Lance around the waist, cherishing his warmth and the delicious feel of his body close to hers.

"Attention, American Airlines passengers. We are now beginning the boarding process for Flight 451, nonstop to Indianapolis, Indiana. Passengers in rows 40 and higher may now begin boarding."

Sighing, Carrie squeezed Lance once more and then began to reluctantly pull back. "We're in 38, they'll probably call us next," she said.

Lance's hands caught her about the waist, preventing her from moving. She looked up at him, blinking, to see his eyes. Normally crystalline green, they'd darkened with the depth of emotion he felt, and Carrie sucked in a deep breath at what she saw in his face.

"Carrie, I promise you that whatever happens, we will not lose touch this time. I won't lose you again. I love you."

Carrie felt her heart skip a beat before it began pounding wildly against her chest.

"Oh, my God... Lance, I--"

He shook his head, bending his head to press his lips to hers again. The kiss melted into her, warming her to her toes; when it ended, she was still looking at him, starry-eyed.

"Lance, I don't know if..."

"It's okay," he said, with a small smile. "We have time."

"American Airlines Flight 451 is now boarding for rows 29 and higher. Passengers in rows 29 and higher, please board now." The attendant's voice rang out over the PA system again, and, with reluctance, Carrie stepped away from Lance again. This time, he let her go, watching as she gathered up her carry-on bag, purse, and one of the styrofoam cups Karyn had brought.

"We'll miss you," Karyn said firmly, grabbing Lance in a hug. He chuckled and hugged her back.

"I'll miss you too." He hugged Lindsey as well, scruffing up her short blond mane while he was at it, and was rewarded with her good-humored scowl. Then the girls were getting in line to have their tickets scanned; when Carrie glanced back at him for a moment, his heart broke to see the disconsolate look in her eyes.

They all waved as the girls headed down the corridor towards the plane, Lance's heart beginning to sink towards his shoes. He almost didn't notice, then, when footsteps came pelting back towards him and Carrie flung herself into his arms again.

"I love you too," he heard her breathe in his ear, her voice hoarse, "and I _will_ be back, you just watch me!" She kissed him again, fiercely, but broke away before he could do more than stare after her in surprise. Just as quickly, she was gone back into the corridor, leaving the others laughing in her wake.

Justin slapped Lance on the back, chuckling. "She's one to watch out for, man."

"Don't I know it." Lance grinned, catching JC's eye, and knew without doubt that somehow, everything would indeed work out. It wouldn't have surprised him in the least to know that on the plane, Carrie was thinking the exact same thing.

And, as it turned out, they were both right. That ending might take some time getting there, but it would be worth the wait.


End file.
